Staff Reporter
Karachi
The Bears were defeated at the stock market on Tuesday as the benchmark KSE-100 index recovered from its midday plunge and closed above the 41,000-point mark.
The first half of the session was marred by political uncertainty, however, investor interest revived midway and they resorted to cherry-picking of stocks which had dropped to attractive valuations.
The ensuing rally supported the index-heavy sectors, which closed in the green, particularly financial and oil sectors.
Earlier, trading began on a positive note, however, weak investor sentiment, caused by the arrest of opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif on Monday, dragged the market down.
After midday, market participants began accumulating stocks which had fallen to encouraging valuations and triggered a rally that helped the index wipe out the losses and closed with handsome gains.
At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 463.41 points, or 1.14%, to settle at 41,204.36 points.
Traded volume stood at 354 million shares. Hascol Petroleum (+5.9%), Unity Foods (+0.1%) and K-Electric (+0.5%) were the volume leaders, contributing a cumulative 94 million shares.
Overall, trading volumes dropped to 353.7 million shares compared with Monday’s tally of 407.2 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs13.8 billion.
