KARACHI - The benchmark KSE-100 index continued its upward movement with a healthy gain of 99 points on Thursday amid strong buying activities. Tentative timeline announced by the officials for eliminating the battling extremist from the sensitive areas in the northern part of the country before resettling the IDPs kept the positive momentum alive. Moreover, rallying oil prices in the international markets and foreign inflow witnessed a day earlier played a major role in positive closing. Leading from the front were oil and gas exploration, fertilizer and banking stocks and buying interest was witnessed mainly by the high net worth participants while sector and stock swapping and absence of carryover product kept the upside confined. The KSE-100 index crossed 7,300 mark on Thursday but unluckily closed slightly down at 7,288.13 points, up 99.29 points. Healthy turnover of nearly 155 million shares facilitated the market to sustain the positive stance. Total trading value of the market remained Rs 5.850 billion as compared to last trading sessions Rs 7.298b. Market capitalisation inched up to Rs2.159 trillion against Rs2.130 trillion, showing a gain of nearly Rs29b in just one day. Out of 324 actively traded stocks, 225 advanced, 82 declined while the worth of the shares of 17 companies remained unchanged. Aggressive allocation figure of Rs 500 billion for PSDP in upcoming budget as announced by the official allowed cement sector stocks to neutralise the budget impact. Activity by local allowed the sector stocks to participate with decent turnover. Since the sector stayed in limelight for the revenue increase exercise, budget speech should be awaited for making fresh bets, despite being under-valued. Pak PTA was the volume leader with the trading of 9.938m shares. Other noted shares at the market include Lucky Cement with 8.846m shares, JSCL 8.790m shares, KESC 8.076m shares, Japan Power 8.006m shares, BoP 7.716m shares, Bank Al-Falah 7.436m shares, Arif Habib Securities 6.971m shares, FFBL 6.299m shares, DGKC 5.699m shares, OGDC 5.665m shares namely. Leading gainers at the market include Wyeth Pakistan, up by Rs48/share and closed at Rs1,339 with the trading of only 80 shares, Treet Corporation gained Rs10.90/share, closing at Rs247.90, Mari Gas Company added Rs7.82/share and its value was increased to Rs164.41, Hinopak Motors gained Rs7.55/share and closed at Rs158.55, GlaxoSmithKline Pak up by Rs6.53/share, closing at Rs137.29, Indus Motor closed at Rs120.56, up Rs5.74/share. Conversely, Pak engineering closed at Rs161.50, down by Rs8.50/share, Al-Ghazi Tractor lost Rs2.01/share and closed at Rs159.99, Singer Pak lost Rs1.72/share and its value was decreased to Rs32.77 with the trading of only 700 shares, Pak Datacom lost Rs1.50/share and closed at Rs69, Glamour Textile down by Rs1/share and closed at Rs4.50, Pak PVC also lost Rs1/share and closed at Rs4/share, KSB Pumps lost Rs0.86/share, closing at Rs85.74. Penny stocks and investment companies supported the turnover mainly due to the portfolio appreciation in the latter and the news of likely public listing of the strategic holdings of the investment companies, expressed Hasnain Asghar Ali. While during the closing hours of the session, off-loading by short-term traders (who called deliveries a day earlier) came in, disallowing the stock to contribute to the gains.