KARACHI: Pakistan equities continued bullish spree for the second consecutive day after yesterday’s 4% devaluation of PKR against US dollar. KSE-100 Index added another 336 points to close at 44,645 points. The index hit intra day high of 44,841 before cooling down. The banking sector maintained its top contributor’s position and added 274 points to index gains , market expects interest rate hike of 25?50bps in upcoming monetary policy meeting. Oil and gas sector added 25 points to index as crude oil prices were up by 2.2%. Market participation in terms of volumes dropped by 6%, while value dropped by 17%. The volume of stocks traded hit 82.6 million worth Rs5.96 billion, compared to 36.1 million share worth Rs 3.5 billion traded previous day. Top five stocks including HBL (+3.4%), BAHL (+4%), UBL (+1.6%), MCB (+1.5%) & PPL (+1.3%) added 390 points to the index. Top five stocks including HBL ( 3.4%), BAHL ( 4%), UBL ( 1.6%), MCB ( 1.5%) and PPL ( 1.3%) added 390 points to the index gain, whereas stocks including POL (?1.2%), HUBC (?0.9%), DGKC (?1%), PAKT (?1.2%) & INDU (?1.7%), withheld 32 points from the index. Published in Daily Times, March 22th 2018.