Stocks made a strong comeback Wednesday with the KSE-100 index gaining 683.56 points or 2.16 percent after days of murky trade. The benchmark index rebounded to 32,392.92 points from Tuesday''s months-low of 31,709.36 points. "After falling for 10 consecutive trading sessions in which the benchmark KSE-100 index shed 2,356 points, the local bourse showed some recovery," viewed analysts at Topline Research.
Investors took fresh positions in index heavyweight stocks due to attractive valuation created by the recent rout, they added. Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib attributed the strong recovery to scrips which rallied across the board after reports on renewed foreign interest in oversold bluechip scrips. "Recovery in global equities, expectations for favourable data on auto, cement sales for Nov''15, upbeat CPI inflation data for Nov''15 and investor interest in leverage stocks played a catalyst role in bullish sentiments," said the analyst.
Trading volume further improved to 191.5 million shares compared to the previous 189 million. The traded value appreciated to Rs 9.33 billion from Rs 7.79 billion of last session. Of the 347 scrips traded, 265 moved up, 65 declined and that of 17 stayed unchanged. The market cap accumulated to Rs 6.89 trillion as foreign portfolio investment which settled in the red. The offshore investors bought portfolios worth $4.49 million compared to their $10.90 million net selling.
The day''s net selling stood at $6.41 million with companies making $2.1 million buying. Bank of Punjab was the day''s volume leader with 17.7 million shares. The banking stock rose to Rs 8.69 at close. Other best performing issues were TRG Pakistan 16 million, Pak Elektron 13.4 million, Pace Pakistan 9.6 million, JSCL 8.2 million, Byco Petroleum 7.0 million, Amreli Steel 6.9 million, SSGC 6.2 million, K-Electric 5.2 million and SNGPL 4.3 million shares. Trade of futures contracts surged to 31 million as compared to 28.8 million of previous session.