The Karachi share market recovered from Monday''s slump and gained 517 points to close at 33,023.80 Tuesday. The KSE-100 index hit the intraday high and low of 33,086.52 and 32,352.43 points, respectively with trading turnover contracting to 177 million shares from the previous 235 million. The traded value shrank to Rs 10.39 billion compared to Rs 12.34 billion of the earlier session.
Of the total 339 scrips, 231 went up, 85 went down and that of 23 stayed unchanged. With market capitalisation surging to Rs 7.211 trillion, the offshore investors'' net buying stood at what analyst said a negligible $ 1.709 million. Pak Elektron, which rose to Rs 60.68 per share, led volumes with 20.49 million of its listed stakes changing hands. Others performed well were Byco Petroleum 16.6 million, Fauji Cement 14 million, K-Electric 11 million, Engro Fertilizer 9.0 million, Jahangir Siddiqui Company 6.2 million, TRG Pakistan 6.0 million, Engro Corporation 6.0 million, Bank of Punjab 5.1 million and Maple Leaf Cement 4.5 million shares.
Trade on the futures market ended in green zone at 39.3 million contracts against 32.9 million of last trading day. "Stocks closed bullish on strong institutional interest in oversold market," said Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp. Recovery in global crude prices after Greece debt repayment to the IMF, the government''s accord with the IMF for the release of $506 million tranche, favourable OMCs sales data for April''15 and easing political uncertainty after the Supreme Court restoration of a key government minister played a catalytic role in bullish activity, he added.
Mohammad Rizwan of Topline Securities saw the market recovering after Monday''s sharp fall of 3.1 percent. This, the analyst said, happened after the equity investors realised no major foreign selling was there on the bourse. "Investors also took fresh positions ahead of MSCI Review which will be announced by midnight today," Rizwan opined. Sharp recovery was seen in the cement stocks with MLCF, DGKC, FCCL and LUCK gaining 5, 4, 2.5 and 0.1 percent, respectively. Oil stocks also rallied as POL, PPL and OGDC rose by 2.7, 1.7 and 1.4 percent. Moving forward, Umair Hasan of JS Global expects the market to remain strong after Tuesday''s recovery.