Index gains 96 points

The equity market settled above 40,023 points Monday with the KSE-100 index adding 96 points to the previous 39,927 points. In the intraday trade, the benchmark index hit the session''s high of 40,102 after slipping to 39,926 points.
"Stocks closed higher led by select oil, cement and fertilizers scrips on strong earnings outlook," said Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp.
Upbeat urea and DAP off-take data for Jul''16, speculations on K-Electric deal pricing with China firms and CPEC projects earnings outlook ramp up for the cement sector, the analyst cited as catalysts for the day''s bullish close.
"The market continued its positive momentum as the index gained 96 points to close in the green zone for the fourth consecutive day," Nabeel Haroon of JS Research.
Major activity was witnessed in second- and third-tier stocks as trading volume increased to 389 million shares which valued down to Rs12.42 billion from Rs15 billion on Friday last week.
Of the total 447 scrips traded, 260 posted gains, 166 lost their worth and that of 21 remained unchanged. The market capital stayed almost flat at Rs8.04 trillion.
Foreign portfolio investment was positive marking net inflows of $1.25 million.
K-Electric was the day''s volume leader counting 49.7 million of its listed stocks changing hands each surging to Rs9.09 at close.
"The electricity provider declared its plan of $2.2 billion to improve its generation capacity and to upgrade its current transmission and distribution network," viewed Haroon.
This, he said, was apart from material information disseminated in the market by the power utility that its UAE-based majority stakeholder, Abraaj Group, was evaluating the possibility of directly or indirectly divesting its shareholding in K-Electric. This, he said, further garnered investor interest.
Other best performing stocks were Byco Petroleum, Pace Pakistan, SNGPL, Bank of Punjab, Dewan Salman, PTCL, SSGC, TRG Pakistan and JSCL.
Pakistan International Bulk Terminal ended 0.77 percent higher on the back of what Haroon said the company''s chief executive officer saying the $255 million terminal at Port Qasim would be operational by December this year.
Reports of growing fertilizer dispatches helped EFERT and FFBT gain 0.50 and 0.53 percent in fertilizer sector.
Futures trade nosedived to 35 million contracts from 105 million on the conclusion of rollover week.
"Moving forward, we expect the market to continue its bullish momentum," said the analyst.