KARACHI: Stocks staged a grand rally on Wednesday propelling the KSE 100 index to an all-time high at 33,585.75 points, representing gains of 214.46 points or 0.64 per cent.
The bulls dominated the market as investors’ interest centred on the leveraged cement and textile stocks amid speculations of discount rate cut in the upcoming monetary policy.
Although the market was rife with rumours of the monetary policy announcement expectations on Thursday, Jan 15, the State Bank gave no indications that it was to be announced on the purported date.
Foreign investors continued to be net buyers with inflow of $2.74 million, almost entirely in the banking sector, possibly anticipating robust year-end results to be announced later this month. Volume increased by 38pc in terms of shares traded and 34pc in trading value.
Chemical sector stood in the spotlight with trading seen in 54m shares followed by financial services sector 46m shares and cement sector with 45.9m shares.
Muhammad Mobeen at JS Global said that the cement sector remained in the limelight, led by DGKC up 2.7pc on the back of plummeting coal prices and strong local demand which would ensure healthy earnings. Oil and gas sector again remained under pressure as the global oil prices slid further.
Eight of the 13 stocks on the sector shed values on Wednesday. OGDC, PPL and PSO fell by 0.39pc, 0.44pc and 0.64pc.
The auto sector continued its rally following the growth of 28pc in sales during Dec, 2014 as PSMC rose by 2.4pc and Honda Car was higher by 1.3pc.
Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said that sharp earnings growth was expected in the fertiliser stocks on rising urea prices and removal of Gas Infrastructure Development Cess. Leveraged stocks rose on likely gains from expected cut in the SBP key rates.
