KARACHI - The stock market started the week positively as the KSE 100-index gained 49.87 points and closed at 9233.60 points. The bullish activity was witnessed in banks, oil and insurance scrips, while rise in international oil prices, strong valuations and institutional support in blue chips also played important part. The KSE 100-index opened in green zone with a gain of 21.85 points and at the end of the day closed at 9233.60 points. The KSE 30-index closed at 9705.41 after gaining 52.51 points. All shares index closed at 6554.40 points with a gain of 34.15 points. Trading activity was minimal as compared to the last trading session as the ready market volume stood at 78.782m as compared to last trading sessions 96.809m. Future market volume, however, stood at 2.132m shares as compared to 1.465m shares of last trading session. Market capitalisation stood over Rs2.660 trillion and total trades decreased to 56,137 as compared to last trading sessions 62,495 Among the companies, 202 companies advanced, 173 declined and 25 remained unchanged. Highest volumes were witnessed in BoP at 11.421m closed at Rs 20.60 with a loss of Re 0.37 followed by BAFL at 7.956m closed at Rs 14.25 with a gain of Re 0.05, NBP at 6.924m closed at Rs 76.50 with a gain of Rs3.59. The news that affected the trading activities at the market were offloading of holdings by local investors during the week that ended on Friday when they sold shares worth $273.11m and bought shares valuing $258.36m, which resulted in net offloading of $14.75m. Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources failed to finalise a revised ex-refinery price formula due to lack of consensus among the stakeholders, including oil refineries. Refineries made huge profits in the past, but did not spend the money on expansion as required. Moreover, 4pc CVT on all immovable property deals by FBR also stirred the market and SPI shows increase of 12.01pc during the week ended Dec 17 over the corresponding period of last year. A market expert Hasnain Asghar Ali said, Replacing stocks carrying reservations on payout and revenue with the stocks likely to display growth will be a prudent strategy in the prevailing scenario, accumulation on dips, in identified stocks will provide some space for short term trading. The active shares were of Siemens Pak that gained Rs 48.25/share to close at Rs 1300, Dreamworld gained Rs 26.99/share to close at Rs 591.99, Rafhan Maize gained Rs 26/share to close at Rs 1426. On the contrary, the decrease in shares witnessed in Colgate Palmolive of Rs 12/share to close at Rs 354, Exide (Pak) lost Rs 8,73 to close at Rs 166.28, Lakson Tobacco with the loss of Rs 6.50/share closed at Rs 248.50.