Market traded in the positive zone for the entire session, however, activity remained lackluster for lack of clear triggers for the market. SBP is expected to announce monetary policy in the coming week, which gives Investors a reason to switch portfolio positions per their views on Policy rate. Banking sector stocks, especially UBL and MCB, stole the limelight. E&P sector saw selling pressure after making a stride earlier in the session, which followed the climb in international crude oil prices. Volumes remained thin overall, where none of the top volume leaders could cross 10M shares in today’s trading.

· The Index closed at 40,653pts as against 40,505pts showing an increase of 148pts (+0.4% DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (+93pts), E&P (+52pts), Cement (+22pts), Chemical (-21pts) and Power (-12pts).

· Volumes continued the declining trend and further slashed to 150.3mn shares as against 243mn shares the day before (-38% DoD). Average traded value also declined by 20% to reach US$ 40mn as against US$ 49.9mn.

· Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include TRG, BIPL, SNBL, PRL and UNITY, which formed 29% of total volumes.

· Stocks that contributed positively to the index include UBL (+51pts), POL (+22pts), PPL (+20pts), MARI (+15pts) and LUCK (+13pts). Stocks that contributed negatively include COLG (-28pts), SYS (-14pts), HUBC (-13pts), FFC (-11pts) and OGDC (-5pts).

(AHL)