Stocks partly recovered the previous day’s heavy losses on Friday, with the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE)-100 index closing higher by 156.78 points to close at 33,943.20.
Volume, however, fell to 250 million shares from 324m, and traded value to Rs14.8 billion from Rs19.1bn. Although local participants remained cautious, foreign investors came to the rescue with net purchases of $2.25m stocks on Friday.
They took fresh positions in banks, and oil and gas sectors which received net inflows of $1.4m and $1.6m, respectively.
Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said the stocks showed recovery amid investors’ interest in oversold scrips across the board after the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) extended stock settlement bank date to May 15.
Rebound in international oil prices and speculations ahead of major earnings announcements next week played a catalyst role in bullish activity in a volatile session at the KSE.
Analyst Arhum Ghous at JS Global observed that the recovery in global oil prices saw bullish momentum build up in the oil and gas sector with PSO, HASCOL, APL and POL gaining 3.2pc, 2.5pc, 1.4pc and 1.2pc, respectively.
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Brokerage Sunrise Capital’s calculations showed DGKC, LPCL and MLCF appreciated by 0.2pc, 1.19pc and 0.21pc in the cement sector.
In their weekly report, AKD Research observed that except Friday the local equities remained in the red for the entire week with the KSE-100 seeing its biggest weekly drop of 714 points, or 2.05pc, this year.
Incoming results played their part in the sell-off with index heavyweights exploration and production (E&P) sector and telecoms (PTC) posting disappointing earnings.
