Market could only add 72pts earlier in the session, however, post announcement of financial results of PSO, the market discounted the earnings growth and Investors resorted to profit booking that brought down the price significantly down from day’s high. Similar activity was observed in Cement sector that saw recent time highs yesterday and today. Besides the deteriorating law and order situation and rise in COVID cases, investors took cue from overnight decline in international stock and commodity markets, which saw an average attrition of 2.5%. Regional markets followed suit that led Investors to resort to profit booking. Among scrips, UNITY topped the volumes with 77.1M shares, followed by POWER (33M) and FFBL (31.3M).

· The Index closed at 41,381pts as against 41,850pts showing a decline of 469pts (-1.1% DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-139pts), Cement (-90pts), E&P (-63pts), O&GMCs (-29pts) and Fertilizer (-26pts).

· Volumes declined slightly from 4866mn shares to 481mn shares (-1% DoD). Average traded value, however, declined by 14% to reach US$ 114.5mn as against US$ 133mn.

· Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include UNITY, POWER, FFBL, PIBTL and MLCF, which formed 40% of total volumes.

· Stocks that contributed positively to the index include HUBC (+28pts), MCB (+15pts), UNITY (+12pts), SEARL (+11pts) and FFBL (+7pts). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (-60pts), BAHL (-46pts), PSO (-33pts), TRG (-28pts) and OGDC (-22pts).