KARACHI: Pakistan equities continued on their upward trajectory on Thursday amid profit-taking as the main index added 145.42 to close at another record high of 49517.02 level. The market rose sharply in the early hours led by index heavy Oils as investors tracked improvement in the outlook of global crude oil. Fertilizer too supported morning gains on rumors that Punjab government was maintaining the subsidy for farmers, while Engro Fertilzers, along with its parent company Engro Corp, also gained from news of additional gas supply to their Urea plant, according to analysts at Elixir Securities. Stocks closed on new highs as investor’s cheered World Bank’s Pakistan growth rate revision to 5.2 percent for FY17. Bullish sentiments witnessed in stock across the board at session start followed by pressure in blue chip scrips on concerns for foreign outflows, global equities selloff and institutional profit taking in the earnings season. Hubco JV stake increase to 47.5 percent in the imported coal fired project and speculations in banking, auto and Pharma stocks played a catalyst role in record close, observed senior analyst, Ahsan Mehanti. Meanwhile, institutional buying in cement sector reportedly from local investors also kept notable cement stocks in the limelight. However, market witnessed profit-taking across the board as benchmark KSE100 Index climbed 0.9% intra-day to a new record high of 49,805. One notable exception was Hub Power that stayed strong throughout on positive news of company increasing stake in planned coal-power project. SNGP closed at its upper limit of 5 percent in anticipation of better upcoming result. Moreover, some profit taking was also observed in few oil and cement stocks. Overall, volumes increased by 18 percent to 543 million shares, while value declined by 9.2 percent – Rs22.6 billion/$215 million. On Wednesday 460 million shares were traded at the bourse as the value of those shares stood at Rs24.9 billion /$239 million. Pervez Ahmed emerged as the volume leader with 58 million shares traded followed by TRG Pak at 34 million, K-electric at 30 million, Japan Power at 16 million, Engro Fertilizer at 15 million, and Pace Pakistan at 15 million. Shares of 437 companies were actively traded at the bourse out of which shares of 218 companies ended in green, 202 in red, while 17 remained unchanged. Despite profit-taking on Thursday, the analysts expect current domestic-liquidity-led positive momentum to continue in the near term with KSE100 Index soon reaching a major milestone of 50,000 points.