Market discounted the anticipated negative impact of the demonstration and gathering conducted by the combined Opposition parties against the incumbent government. Investor sentiment was already dampened at the close of session last week and it was anticipated to further deteriorate post allegations made by PML N leader on the military establishment. Contrary to general expectation, the index sided with the positive expectation on the upcoming quarterly results that helped index trade green for most part of the session. By the end of the ongoing week, FATF plenary session is also scheduled to be announced where Pakistan may get relief from Enhanced Follow-up List.

Fertilizer off-take numbers helped the listed Fertilizer stocks to post gains especially EFERT and ENGRO. Post announcement of its financial results last Friday, HBL gained further however, profit booking brought the stock price slightly lower from LDCP. E&P sector also contributed positively to the index with earnings of 4 listed E&P companies due to be announced in the coming days. Among scrips, UNITY topped the volumes with 53.6M shares, followed by PIBTL (36.6M) and FFL (26.7M).

·        The Index closed at 40,340pts as against 40,164pts showing an increase of 176pts (+0.4% DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include Fertilizer (+87pts), E&P (+31pts), O&GMCs (+19pts), Transport (+15pts) and Vanaspati (+14pts).

·        Volumes increased from 254.2mn shares to 319.6mn shares (+25% DoD). Average traded value also increased by 3% to reach US$ 49.0mn as against US$ 47.6mn.

·        Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include UNITY, PIBTL, FFL, KOSM and HASCOL, which formed 51% of total volumes.

·        Stocks that contributed positively to the index include ENGRO (+62pts), EFERT (+23pts), MARI (+20pts), MEBL (+16pts) and PIBTL (+15pts). Stocks that contributed negatively include HBL (-13pts), MCB (-12pts), POL (-5pts), PAKT (-5pts) and NBP (-5pts). (AHL)