KARACHI: Stocks rebound 69.55 points after a choppy day with the benchmark KSE-100 index closing at 28,786.74 on Thursday. The index moved in a band of 271 points between the intra-day high and low. Volumes slumped by 22pc to 217m shares.

Foreign investors bought $2.33m worth shares on Thursday, investing mainly in banks a sum of $1.5m; oil and gas sector $1.4m and chemicals $1.1m. ‘Companies’ also went for cherry picking at the lower levels indicating investment of $2.54m.

Yet, the ‘individuals’ decided to take profit with sale of $6.21m worth shares. Individuals were spooked by the heavy market plunge the earlier day. The market was expected to remain choppy also on Friday as it would be the last day of the April contract. The future contract holders could carry forward their positions or square up accordingly.

Mixed trend was observed in banking sector on Thursday where values of MCB Bank, ABL, UBL and JSBL rose by 1.37pc, 0.77pc, 0.88pc and 0.59pc, while FABL and NBP dropped by 1.07pc and 0.80pc.

Najam Ali, CEO at Next Capital stated that stock market operate on two basics: liquidity and confidence.
While the liquidity was fairly good, confidence on the economy; budget uncertainties and the full impact of the rupee appreciation on the export oriented sector were still uncertain.

Ovais Ahsan, analyst at JS Global observed that the market continued to see volatility as rollover in the futures market contracts induced selling pressure. Strong corporate results in the cement sector helped the market stay in the green with Lucky Cement up 2.0pc, Cherat Cement higher by 4.7pc and Kohat Cement just about hitting the ‘upper circuit’ with gain of 4.9pc.