Index gains 264 points

Positive trend continued at the Karachi share market during the week ended on February 18, 2012 and the KSE-100 index increased by 264.08 points to close at 12,495.68 points. On the back of aggressive buying on the last trading session of the week, the index breached 12,600 points mark to hit 12,611.52 points intra-day high, though closing lower due to profit taking.
Trading improved and the average daily volume at the ready counter increased by 3.2 percent to 175.04 million shares as compared to previous week''s 169.60 million shares.
Market capitalisation increased by Rs 82 billion to Rs 3.257 trillion. Foreign investors, however, remained net sellers and withdrew $0.84 million from the market as compared to inflow of $5.9 million of previous week.
On Monday, the market opened on a positive note and the index gained 18.40 points to close at 12,250.00 points with 116.090 million shares'' trading.
On Tuesday, the index inched up 11.85 points and closed at 12,261.85 points with 148.203 million shares.
On Wednesday, the index gained 49.19 points to close at 12,311.04 points with 172.080 million shares.
On Thursday, the market witnessed another bullish session and the index increased by 93.20 points to close at 12,404.24 points with 205.563 million shares.
On Friday, the index surged by 91.44 points and closed at 12,495.68 points with 233.268 million shares.
"Positivity continued to shower its blessings towards capital market, as the index increased by 2.2 percent during the week", Yawar uz Zaman, an analyst at InvestCap, said. "Despite no change in policy rate, positivity came out after FBR officials visited the stock market, and the CDC, to review the CGT collection mechanism", he said, adding that investors took it as a step towards realisation of Finance Minister''s promises for equity market reforms.
Meanwhile, discussions with India on its MFN status and trilateral talks between Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan also supported market activity as leading sectors landed in green. Iran has agreed to extend trade with Pakistan to $10 billion and showed interest to provide oil to Pakistan on deferred payments.
On the economic front, due to substantial rise in imports, trade deficit in the seven months of FY12 stood at $13.17 billion, up 39.8 percent on year-on-year basis, which was somewhat supported by remittances which showed a growth of 21.54 percent to $7.44 billion, up 38 percent on month-on-month basis to $1.11 billion, though FDI were still down by 41 percent to only $594 million during July-January 2012 period.
Furqan Ayub at JS Global Capital said that the State Bank''s decision to keep the policy rate unchanged failed to weaken the investors'' sentiment at the bourse. Investors also ignored domestic political uncertainty, as strong corporate announcements, US State Department''s allocation of $2.4 billion for Pakistan and attractive valuations lured the investors.