The Karachi share market witnessed a bullish trend during the new fiscal year and the benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 11.5 percent during the first two months (July-August 2012) of FY 2012-13. The index increased by 1590.17 points during two month period and closed at 15,391.58 points on August 31, 2012 from 13,801.41 points of June 30.
During August, the index gained 814.58 points while an increased of 775.59 points was witnessed in July 2012. Trading activities at the local bourse increased significantly on the back of aggressive participation of local retail investors. The institutional buying also supported the index to register healthy gains. The foreign investors support also continued and they remained net buyers of shares worth $80.392 million during the two month period this year against their net selling of $37.355 million in the same period last year.
Total market capitalisation increased by Rs 401 billion during these two months to Rs 3.919 trillion. Analysts said the bullish trend started just after the announcement to implement new Capital Gains Tax regime under which the investors were given incentive that the source of income of invested money in share trading would not be asked till June 30.
The above expectation cut in interest rate in SBP Monitory Policy in August was another factor that revived investors' confidence and invited aggressive buying at the capital market. The healthy corporate results also invited fresh buying in relevant stocks and the index increased to four-year highest level during the last two months.