RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Karachi stocks maintained Thursday’s bull-run adding another 486 points to KSE-100 index which closed at 34,447.47 Friday.

Barring foreign investment, all the heads on KSE stock market report were positive on the week’s last trading day.

“Stocks closed sharply higher led by blue chips across-the-board amid recovering global equities and record surge of WTI crude oil prices,” said Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corp.

The analyst cited speculations ahead of CPI inflation data release for Aug’15, upbeat fertilizer consumption data release by NFDC for Apr-Jun’15 and stable economic outlook as catalysts for the day’s bullish close.

The benchmark index hit the session high 34,495.12 points, as trading volumes rose to 282.65 million shares from the previous 223.24 million.

The traded value also settled in the green at Rs 15 billion compared to Thursday’s Rs 10.8 billion.

Of the total 393 scrips traded, 265 posted gains, 112 losses while 16 stayed unchanged. The market capitalisation accumulated to Rs 7.459 trillion.

Foreign investors kept offloading their portfolios to the tune of $ 3.54 million. Since Monday, August 17, foreign outflows from Karachi bourse totalled $ 82.15 million.

Dewan Cement led the volume chart with 29.8 million shares. The cement producer appreciated to Rs 16.22 at close after opening the day at Rs 15.70.

Other nine best performing stocks included Pak Elektron 20.9 million, Bank of Punjab 18.6 million, K-Electric 15 million, SSGC 11.5 million, Maple Leaf Cement 10.4 million, Fauji Cement 9.2 million, Byco Petroleum 9.0 million, TRG Pakistan 7.2 million and Jahangir Siddiqui Company 7.0 million shares.

The futures trade surged to 94.77 million contracts from 69.31 million of last session.