· Market traded in a narrow range today, oscillating between -83pts and +172pts, closing the index +58pts (unadjusted). Being a short trading week, investors were reluctant to go long and preferred to close the intra-day positions regardless of the pertinent stock prices. As PKR parity slipped during the session, with open market rates falling to 162, Textile, Chemical, E&P stocks were favoured against Cement, Fertilizer and Banks. O&GMCs saw SNGP and SSGC hitting upper circuit on the back of High Court’s decision in favor of gas utilities to maintain transmission UFG benchmark. Technology stocks saw consistent upward movement in AVN, which hit upper circuit and an uptick in SYS that maintained such levels till end. Among scrips, BYCO topped the volumes with 24.2M shares, followed by DNCCR (23.1M) and SNGP (18.5M).

· The Index closed at 47,873pts as against 47,834pts showing an increase of 39pts (+0.1% DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include Misc (+33pts), O&GMCs (+29pts), Bans (+18pts), Autos (+10pts), Cement (-24pt) and Technology (-14pts).

· Volumes declined further from 348.5mn shares to 320.9mn shares (-8% DoD). Average traded value also declined by 18% to reach US$ 73.9mn as against US$ 90.3mn.

· Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include BYCO, DNCCR, SNGP, ASC and TREET, which formed 29% of total volumes.

· Stocks that contributed positively to the index include PSEL (+33pts), SNGP (+25pts), MEBL (+12pts), FFC (+11pts) and SSGC (+8pts). Stocks that contributed negatively include LUCK (-22pts), TRG (-21pts), ENGRO (-12pts), HBL (-10pts) and BAFL (-8pts).