Led by cement and oil & gas stocks, the local share market staged a smart recovery mainly on account of institutional support amid steady turnover.
The LSE-25 index scored 31.78 points to close at 2860.08 as compared to 2828.30 points of Wednesday. There was, however, a fractional fluctuation in trade volume, which moved up to 82.381 million shares from 82.239 million shares of the preceding session.The market recovered from the overnight losses, and showed strength on the back of institutional support that was mainly focussed on oil & gas and cement stocks.
The banking sector also performed well, and attracted fresh buying, which provided further strength to the index, stock analysts said, adding the cement and fuel & energy stocks also led the market in terms of volume that remained encouraging.
They also said they saw no change in the trend on Friday, but pressure could surface on the last trading day.
Ahmed Nabeel, head of operations, Invest & Finance Securities Ltd, said the institutions off-loading on the last day of the financial year, took fresh positions on the first day of the new financial year with new targets due to which the market gained strength.
He, however, pointed that most of buying from the institutional side remained centred around oil & gas and cement stocks following change in their fundamentals.
He said the news of huge discovery of oil & gas in Frontier province has triggered fresh interest in the oil and gas sector, especially in OGDCL, holding 25 percent shares in these wells, adding that Pakistan Oil Field and Pakistan Petroleum Limited have 25 percent and 15 percent holdings, respectively, while Hungarian firm, MOL, and Government of Pakistan hold 10 percent each.
The cement sector also remained attractive for institutional support, he said, adding reports that the President may take a final decision on Thursday on dams ignited-interest in the entire sector.
He, however, pointed out that with the enforcement of CVT from Thursday, badla will shoot up and the market might come under pressure.
"I think the market will move in a zigzag way till mid-July, and then interest could re-emerge on hopes of corporate results for the year ending June 2004", he said, adding from mid-July to mid-August, the market could reach at its peak, but after that it will lose charm, therefore, after mid-August people should square positions to be on the safe side.
At close of the market, gainers edged out losers by 32 to 8 with 47 unchanged of a total of 87 traded scrips.
Among major gainers, Lucky Cement was up Rs 2.80, Askari Commercial Bank Rs 2.00, OGDC Rs 1.95, PSO and Dewan Farooq Motors Rs 1.20 each.
In minus column, Hajra Textile Mills was down by 50 paisa, Dandot Cement 39 paisa, Southern Electric Power 30 paisa, Pakistan PTA 28 paisa, and Bosicor Pakistan 16 paisa.
OGDCL and Lucky Cement were the volume leader with 13.606 million and 13.568 million shares, respectively.