KARACHI - The Karachi stock market continued its upward march Friday on institutional and foreign interest on strong valuations after the US Embassy congratulated Pak-India leadership on improving diplomatic bilateral ties between the two countries. The 100-share index rose by 76.10 points or 0.64 per cent to close at 11,885.64 points, on turnover of 8.50 million shares. The KSE market capitalization amounted to Rs3, 167.34 billion or $37.11 billion while total trading value was recorded at Rs3.51 billion or $41.17 million respectively. The KSE 30-index surged by 68.62 points or 0.59 per cent to close at 11,630.12 points mark. KSE future volume came at 3.43 million shares, showing Rs447.55 million value with 7.94 per cent future spread. Rising local commodity prices including cement, oil and fertilizers, higher banking spreads and positive investor sentiment ahead of quarter end earning announcements played a catalyst role in keeping positive activity at KSE, said a market analyst. The cautious consolidation continued to see at the local bourse on Thursday as sector and stocks swapped mainly from expensive and low yielding to low P.E and high dividend yielding stocks. However, front line stocks from oil and gas exploration and some frontlines from fertilizer sector faced renewed sell-off, said another analyst. He said that accumulation by the local corporate participations in some of the stocks restricted the intra day decline, while the benchmark moved in positive, yet narrow range. According to analyst, the recent increase in petroleum prices, which on one end will confirm fresh spike in inflation, with govt borrowings already on higher side, the recipe for surge in local interest rates have been seemingly prepared, while on the other hand likely political and social repercussions might lead to tremors in the relatively calm political scene. He predicted that with triggers limited the market men are likely to continue low volume trades in large cap and dividend yielding stocks, along with various low priced stocks are expected to witness strategic and fundamental improvement. Reconsideration by the authorities if brought under discussion, regarding replacement of capital gain tax with capital value tax or making it optional will indeed allow the local bourse to perform at its potential, that is much higher then the existing levels, both on turnover and multiples, besides allowing the revenues targeted by FBR to increase many folds, he mentioned.