Stocks gain 106 points

Having lost 99 points during the first two sessions, stocks recovered 106 points to 39,506 points Wednesday. The benchmark KES-100 index showed volatility in intraday trade to have hit the highest and lowest levels of 39,545 and 39,362 points. Trade slid to 140 million shares the value of which depreciated to Rs 7.67 billion from the previous Rs 8.16 billion. Of the 390 issues traded, 223 posted gains, 142 lost their worth and that of 25 remained unchanged.
The market capital accumulated higher to Rs 7.94 trillion. Staying green for first two sessions, foreign portfolio investment landed in negative zone and marked $2.79 million net selling. K-Electric kept leading volumes for third consecutive session with its 12 million traded shares priced up at close at Rs 8.78. Other best performers were Dewan Motors, SNGPL, Pak Elektron, TRG Pakistan, Meezan Bank, Yousuf Weaving, Bank of Punjab and Engro Fertilisers.
Trade on the futures market dipped to 52 million contracts in the rollover week from 71 million of last session. "Stocks showed recovery led by auto, textile and cement scrips on strong valuations," said Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp. The analyst said higher cotton prices, strong financial results in auto, cement sectors played a catalytic role in the higher close amid pressure in oil stocks on falling crude prices and uncertainty in global equities.
Ahmed Saeed Khan of JS Research said positivity prevailed on the third day of rollover week as the index surged 106 points amid lower volumes. "Rally today was led by the automobile sector that rallied across the board on the back of depreciating yen," he said. Major index movers of the sector were PSMC and INDU which gained 3.89 and 2.58 percent, respectively.
PAEL added 1.18 percent to its value because of what analyst said the Asian Development Bank having released $810 million loan for the upkeep of electric transmission system. Marginal positivity was witnessed in the oil sector after OGDC's (+1.18%) FY16 result clocked in better than expected despite global crude oil prices continuing its downward trajectory. "Going forward, we expect the local bourse to be volatile for the last two days of the futures rollover week," the analyst said.