Karachi equities Wednesday responded positively to favourable developments on the international front where US WTI crude oil rebounded to $37 per barrel. Another positive was rallying global stocks on the back of investor optimism ahead of a likely monetary tightening by the US FED Reserve after a decade long status quo. The KSE-100 index remained bullish throughout the day and rallied to 32,714.60 points, adding 247 points to Tuesday's 32,467.04 points, which proved to be the session's low.
"Stocks closed bullish led by oil stocks after WTI crude recovery near to $37/barrel and bullish rally global equities ahead of US Fed Reserve interest rate decisions later today," viewed Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp. Analysts at Topline Research said the bourse regained momentum in trade because of some stability in international oil prices and uptick in regional markets. Trading turnover recovered to 149 million shares valuing down to Rs 7.71 billion compared to the previous Rs 9.23 billion. Of the 328 scrips traded 183 posted gains, 123 lost their worth and that of 22 stayed unchanged. The market cap inched up to Rs 6.87 trillion.
Having made $8.2 million buying a day earlier, foreigners Wednesday turned jittery making a net selling of $6.86 million: $77,719 by individuals, $5.62 million by corporate firms and $1.16 million by overseas Pakistanis. SNGPL, sliding to Rs 26.50 at close, led the volume with 18.6 million shares. Other best performers were TRG Pakistan, K-Electric, SSGC, OGDCL, JSCL, Pak Elektron, Japan Power, Bank of Punjab and Southern Electric. Futures trade shrank to 26.63 million contracts.
Pakistan Petroleum hit its upper limit because of what equity observers said the company's announcement of gas discovery at Gambat. "This has been the country's biggest gas discovery in 10 years," said analysts citing news reports. Another scrips rising to the five percent ceiling was Pak Suzuki Motor Company which had announced the launch of two new models.
"Likely release of 9th IMF tranche, upbeat cement sales data for Nov'15, renewed institutional interest in oversold oil, banking and cement stocks played a catalytic role in bullish activity," said Mehanti. This, he said, was despite investor concerns over the ongoing security controversies in Sindh.