Stocks rally amid optimism on IMF deal

Bulls made a comeback at the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Tuesday as share prices closed on the higher side thanks to positive triggers. Arif Habib Ltd said the index of representative shares hit an intraday high of 293.07 points as investors adopted a value-hunting-on-dips strategy. Their enthusiasm was based on the expectation of a positive outcome from the ongoing negotiations between the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the $7 billion loan programme’s revival. The likely approval of a new refinery policy in the next meeting of the cabinet committee on energy scheduled for this week kept the shares of oil refining companies in the limelight. As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 40,949.84 points, up 276.2 points or 0.68 per cent from the preceding session. The overall trading volume increased 4.1pc to 96.5 million shares. The traded value went up 3pc to $17.5m on a day-on-day basis.