Equities at Pakistan's Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) hit another fresh four-year high on Friday as local institutions as well as foreign investors continued taking interest in telecom and fertilizer sector stocks thus helping the main index close above 14,600 points level.

The benchmark KSE 100-Index surged by 1.33 percent or 192.36 points to close at 14,612.28 levels on Friday as against Thursday' s closing of 14,419.92 points; the KSE All Share Index gained 1.23 percent or 124.41 points to end at 10,238.21 points as against 10, 113.21 points recorded Thursday; the KSE 30-Index surged by 1.41 percent or 177.43 points to conclude at 12,755.54 points from 12, 578.11 points of Thursday, whereas the KMI 30-Index jumped by 1.2 percent or 298.29 points to finish trading activities at 25,167.03 points when compared with closing of 24.868.74 reported the other day.

During the abbreviated week that ended on May 4, 2012, the KSE 100-Index jumped by 569.51 points with three out of four trading sessions closing in the positive terrain. The country's top bourse remained closed on Tuesday owing to the World Labor Day.

The KSE 100-Index declined by 52.39 points to close at 13,990 levels on Monday, before registering three consecutive days of bullish trade where it recorded increment of 152.14 points on Wednesday to close at 14,142.52 points, jumped by 277.40 points on Thursday to end at 14,419.92 points, and gained 192.36 points on Friday to finish the day and week at 14,612.28 points.

Market started the final trading session on a strong bullish note where continuous buying spree by foreign investors and local institutions in telecom and fertilizer sectors helped bulls steal the limelight during the initial trade as the main index stormed past 14,600 points. Soon it achieved the intraday highest level of 14,629.04, an increment of 210 points. The main index lost half of the initial gains going into the Friday's prayers break at 14,521. 87 points, 102 points increment, as early buying euphoria somewhat lost its strength.

The key index regained the bullish moves at the start of the post Friday prayers break and the main index came close to its intraday highest level before finishing the trading activities just underneath those levels.

Market volumes improved by 41.196 million shares to 335.166 million shares on Friday as against trading of 293.97 million shares recorded on Thursday as traders remained buoyed at the Karachi Stock Exchange after witnessing continuous buying from the foreign investors.

During the week under review, the market recorded total volumes of 1.039 billion shares at average daily turnovers of 259.9 million shares. Market reported volumes of 164.07 million shares on Monday, 246.39 million shares on Wednesday, 293.97 million shares on Thursday, and 335.166 million shares on Friday.

Market capitalization bettered by 46.55 billion rupees (517.222 million U.S. dollars) to 3.73 trillion rupees (41.44 billion U.S. dollars) on Friday when compared with market capitalization worth 3.683 trillion rupees (40.93 billion U.S. dollars) recorded in the previous trading session.

Foreign investors have been the main reason behind the recent bullish sentiments at the country's top bourse as the figures released by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited ( NCCPL) suggested that foreign investors net bought shares worth 1. 761 billion rupees (19.569 million U.S. dollars) on Friday.

During the week under review, offshore investors came up with net buying of 2.986 billion rupees (33.188 million U.S. dollars).

The foreign market participants came up with net buying worth 38.015 million rupees (0.422 million U.S. dollars) on Monday, net buying of 735.934 million rupees (8.177 million U.S. dollars) on Wednesday, net buying of 451.681 million rupees (5.018 million U.S. dollars) on Thursday, and 1.761 billion rupees (19.569 million U.S. dollars) on Friday.

In broader market, a total of 394 companies changed hands during the course of Friday trade where prices of 182 issues advanced, 154 declined, whereas values of 58 other scrips stayed unchanged at previous day's levels.

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited was once again the top traded company of the day as a total of 51.657 million shares were traded in its scrip, followed by Dera Ghazi Khan Cement, Telecard Limited, Jahangir Siddiqui Company Limited, and WorldCall Telecom with turnovers of 30.289 million shares, 22.407 million shares, 20.090 million shares, and 16.346 million shares respectively.

UniLever Pakistan Limited emerged as the top price gainer of the day with an increment of 335.33 rupees (3.72 U.S. dollars) in its per share price that ended at 7,042 rupees (78.24 U.S. dollars) on Friday while on the other hand Island Textile led the top price shedders as its per scrip value fell by 12.34 rupees (13.71 U.S. cents) to finish the day at 234.56 rupees (2.60 U.S. dollars).