KARACHI - After a week’s lull, Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) managed to stage a strong comeback on Monday as market participants cherished the announcement of a possible support package by Prime Minister for revival of stock market. The benchmark KSE 100-index rallied by 945 points and closed at 40,791 points.

According to news reports, a delegation of PSX officials, stock brokers and representatives from Mutual Fund industry met with PM over the weekend and recommended to inject Rs20b worth of fund into PSX to reignite the market, said dealer at Topline Securities.

The positive momentum was stirred by announcement of a committee to resolve problems faced by brokers and investors as a consequence of Prime minister’s meeting with stock brokers over the weekend, coupled with highest foreign buying of 38.9m dollars recorded during last week since May’13.

Top 10 index point contributors were OGDC (up 3.4%), ENGRO (4.7%), LUCK (5%), POL (3.3%), PPL (2.3%), PSO (4.1%), DAWH (5%), SNGP (5%), HBL (1.3%) & MCB (1.8%); adding 428 points, while JDWS (down 3.9%), KTML (1.2%), OLPL (2.1%), GADT (1%), KAPCO (0.7%), CPPL (0.1%), POML (0%), PMPK (0%), PICT (0%) & PAKT (down 0%), withheld 11 points. Sector-wise; E&Ps gained 158 points as Iraq-Kurdistan conflict and fears of new Iran sanctions drove up oil prices. Fresh buying was seen in the cement sector as chatter of a possible meeting among cement producers in upcoming days to keep firm pricing surfaces - the sector gained 146 points. Banks and fertilizer sectors cumulatively gained 252 points.

Scrip-wise positive contributors remained: OGDC 63 points, ENGRO 62 points, LUCK 62 points, POL 37 points and PPL 37 points.  Average daily volumes were down by 19% DoD to 125m shares and average daily value traded settled at Rs6b/USD57m, sinking by 15% DoD.