Stocks stage 387-point rally on falling oil prices

The Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed a bullish trend on Wednesday as investors welcomed lower international oil prices. Topline Securities said a statement from the US Department of State clarifying that the United States is confident of Pakistan’s ability to keep its nuclear assets safe and secure also helped the index close on a bullish note. The index traded in the green zone throughout the trading session as the trade deficit witnessed a decline of 30.2pc on a year-on-year basis, noted Arif Habib Ltd. Investors’ participation remained high in mainboard stocks while third-tier stocks also attracted large volumes. As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 42,226.05 points, up 386.78 points or 0.92pc from the preceding session. The trading volume increased 31.5pc to 250.3 million shares while the traded value went up 14pc to $30.1m on a day-on-day basis. Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included G3 Tech­nologies Ltd (22.37m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (21.17m shares), G3 Technologies Ltd-Class B (14.8m shares), Ghani Global Holdings Ltd (14.5m shares) and Dewan Motors Ltd (12.2m shares).