Market opened on a positive note today with +89pts and added a total of 389pts during the session. Concerns over political uncertainty, especially alliance of opposition parties for demonstration and protest scheduled against the Government for tomorrow, brought the index down by 82pts (unadjusted) by the end of session. E&P and Chemical sector posted gains in today’s session on the back of an increase in prices of international crude prices as well as expectation of positive delta in Chemical products of listed Chemical companies. Besides OGDC and PPL, Chemical sector scrips EPCL, SPL, DOL traded at and near upper circuits. Among scrips, HASCOL topped the volumes with 30.5M shares, followed by PIBTL (17.7M) and UNITY (14.7M).

· The Index closed at 40,068pts as against 40,144pts showing a decline of 76pts (-0.2% DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include Fertilizer (+28pts), Chemical (+23pts), Food (+14pts), Cement (-28pts), Banks (-24pts) and Textile (-15pts).

· Volumes increased from 232.8mn shares to 324.8mn shares (+39% DoD). Average traded value also increased by 29% to reach US$ 67.7mn as against US$ 52.5mn.

· Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include HASCOL, PIBTL, UNITY, EPCL and ANL, which formed 29% of total volumes.

· Stocks that contributed positively to the index include EPCL (+24pts), BAFL (+17pts), NESTLE (+11pts), FFBL (+10pts) and FATIMA (+9pts). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (-35pts), TRG (-17pts), MCB (-14pts), KTML (-13pts) and LUCK (-12pts). (AHL)