Market realized a second consecutive day with +460M volume and in the process posted a gain of 317pts during the session taking the KSE100 index to a recent time high of 36,936pts. Highlight of the day turned out to be PPL, which realized high trading volume and after initial trades at below LDCP, the price spiked significantly. Despite international crude prices facing a down day, E&P scrips (PPL and POL) posted decent gains. POL also announced a hydrocarbons discovery that took the stock price trading near upper circuits. Profit booking was mainly observed in Cement sector throughout the day, and similar pressure was observed in E&P stocks that brought the Index to close +127pts. Cement sector posted highest traded volumes of 51.9M shares, followed by Power (48.1M) and Cable (37.9M). Among scrips, KEL topped the volumes with 39.2M shares, followed by PAEL (33.5M) and MLCF (25.2M).

·        The Index closed at 36,745pts as against 36,619pts showing an increase of 127pts (+0.3% DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include E&P (+66pts), Inv Banks (+36pts), Fertilizer (+24pts), Misc (+11pts), Pharma (+10pts), Cement (-23pts) and O&GMCs (-15pts).

·        Volumes declined slightly to 466mn shares against 468.9mn shares the other day (-0.6% DoD). Average traded value also declined by 2% to reach US$ 109.5mn as against US$ 111mn.

·        Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include KEL, PAEL, MLCF, PPL and UNITY, which formed 30% of total volumes.

·        Stocks that contributed positively to the index include POL (+44pts), DAWH (+31pts), PPL (+16pts), KEL (+15pts) and SHFA (+11pts). Stocks that contributed negatively include PSO (-18pts), LUCK (-11pts), HUBC (-10pts), BAFL (-9pts), and DGKC (-8pts) – (AHL).