Stocks rally on clarity in economic direction

Bulls regained their control of the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Tuesday as investors celebrated the positive triggers on the economic front. Arif Habib Ltd said investors welcomed the much-needed clarity provided by the monetary policy statement announced a day ago. The index of representative shares opened in the positive range and stayed at an elevated level throughout the trading session. Investors remained enthusiastic as they expected favourable outcomes from the ongoing talks of the government with the International Monetary Fund. The trading volume also improved drastically across the board as investors remained active throughout the day. As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 39,055.65 points, up 612.06 points or 1.59 per cent from the preceding session. The overall trading volume increased 121.1pc to 179.8 million shares. The traded value went up 126.4pc to $27.6m on a day-on-day basis. Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (13.1m shares), Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd (12.5m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (11.8m shares), Al-Shaheer Corporation Ltd (10.5m shares) and Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (7.6m shares).