Stocks rise 121 points on value-hunting

Political unrest and higher commodity prices resulted in volatility in the shares market on Wednesday. According to Arif Habib Ltd, the cement sector faced pressure owing to higher coal prices in the international market. United Bank Ltd was in the limelight after it announced better-than-expected financial results. Value hunting was observed in the last trading hour, which led to a recovery in the shares market. Trading continued to be sideways as the market witnessed hefty volumes in third-tier stocks. As a result, the KSE-100 index gained 120.74 points or 0.27pc on a day-on-day basis to close at 45,132.92 points. The trading volume decreased 18pc to 186.4 million shares while the traded value went down 10.8pc to $38.6m on a day-on-day basis. Sectors that contributed the highest number of points to the benchmark index included cement (69.29 points), commercial banking (48.03 points), automobile assembling (19.13 points), tobacco (11.59 points) and technology and communication (11.38 points).