Stocks end week on bullish note
Stocks gained momentum after an early choppy start to the outgoing week, resulting in sizeable gains in the KSE-100 index by 962 points (up by three per cent) week-on-week, closing above the 33,000-level at 33,033. Several factors rekindled investors' interest in the equities including the increase in cement prices in Northern region and a rise of 12.4pc in local despatches, which was taken as a signal of the revival of construction sector that has been bearing the brunt as cyclical for long time.
But the major factor that helped investors take heart and be encouraged was the meeting of leading industrialists and businessmen with the Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa who lent his ears to their grievances and agreed to assist in finding ways to bolster the economy.
Such was the euphoria created by the meeting that investors went into heavy buying overlooking all the negatives. Stronger than expected inflation reading (11.37pc against consensus expectation of 11.1pc); the central bank's foreign exchange reserves falling to a three-month low of $7.7bn; concerns over the upcoming Financial Action Task Force and the political headwinds on the announcement of long march to Islamabad starting on 27th by a major political party could not spoil the mood of investors.
Participation also increased significantly with average daily traded volume up 106.4pc over the earlier week to 223 million shares while average value traded clocked in at $40mn (higher by 58pc).