KARACHI - The stock market rallied on the fourth consecutive day on Thursday due to continuous foreign and local fund managers’ support, with the KSE 100-share index closing above 28,300 points mark for the first time ever.
At local equity market, the benchmark 100-index added 404.34 points or 1.45 per cent to end the day at 28336.36 points as compared to 27932.02 points of the previous day.
Manager equity sales at Topline Samar Iqbal said prevailing positive sentiment over improving economic and external fronts kept market in the bullish zone with stocks like OGDC, PPL, POL, MCB, PSO and LUCK dominating the gains.
With volumes rising to 488 million shares last seen 10 months ago, value in Pak rupee also rose to Rs.14.2b.  Trading took place in 387 companies where gainers beat the losers by 222 to 141 while the values of 24 stocks remained intact. Highest price increased was witnessed in rate of Unilever Foods, up by Rs 213.14 to Rs 8900, followed by Nestle Pak SPOT, up by Rs 189.80 to Rs 8200.  Market traded 449.071 million shares after opening at 249.688 million shares and the value of traded shares rose to Rs 14.219 billion from Rs 11.366 billion while the capitalization of the market maintained at Rs 6.831 trillion from Rs 6.726 trillion of a day earlier.  Ahsan Mehanti, analyst at Arif Habib Corp, said yet again stocks closed at all time high, led by stocks across the board on renewed foreign interest after MSCI decision on Frontier Market Index for Pakistan’s weight raise to 8.9% from 4.3% till Nov-14.
Easing circular debt concerns following NEPRA tariff raise by 70pc in Karachi, rupee stability, expectations for country’s risk premium reduction following MOF road shows for $500m foreign inflows via Eurobond and speculations ahead of quarter end earning announcements due next week played a catalyst role in bullish sentiments at KSE, he added. Active list was topped by Lafarge Pak with 62.3990 million shares as it closed at Rs 12.04 after opening at Rs 11.61. NIB Bank Limited was the second highest with 48.931 million shares, up by Re 0.39 to Rs 2.79. It was followed by Summit Bank with 38.239 million shares, gained Re 0.44 to Rs 4.54, SilkBank Limited with 24.267 million shares, higher by Re 0.29 to Rs 2.64 and Lotte chemical with 23.760 million shares, increased by Re 0.32 to Rs 8.26.