Market traded positive but range bound today by adding a total of 344pts during the session and closing the session +241pts (unadjusted). Cement, Steel and Banking sector stocks faced selling pressure among which Cement sector stocks came down due to profit booking after posting highs today and in the rollover week. Positivity came from O&GMCs, Fertilizer and Power sector which took cue from finalization of pending IMF review and govt.’s acceptance of the underlying terms. Cement sector stocks initially hit a high on the news of construction of Dams, however, profit booking brought the stocks below respective LDCPs. International crude oil prices rebounded during the session, however, muted positive response was only observed in OGDC and PPL. Among scrips, KEL topped the volumes with 46.1M shares, followed by UNITY (31.8M) and TRG (25.8M).

· The Index closed at 43,674pts as against 43,417pts showing an increase of 258pts (+0.6% DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include Technology (+62pts), Banks (+37pts), O&GMCs (+29pts), Power (+28pts) and Vanaspati (+23pts).

· Volumes declined from 570.5mn shares to 463.4mn shares (-19% DoD). Average traded value also declined by 26% to reach US$ 117.8mn as against US$ 159.1mn.

· Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include KEL, UNITY, TRG, PRL and GGLR1, which formed 33% of total volumes.

· Stocks that contributed positively to the index include TRG (+63pts), MEBL (+36pts), UNITY (+23pts), MCB (+17pts) and KEL (+17pts). Stocks that contributed negatively include POL (-13pts), LUCK (-10pts), UBL (-9pts), COLG (-8pts) and SYS (-8pts).