Market traded range bound today between +306pts and -312pts, closing the session in red with -237pts (unadjusted). Investors have lately been discounting the back to back good corporate results on concerns of rising COVID cases as well as end of Earnings season that has regressed the market to current levels. E&P stocks went down (with the exception of PPL) following the downtrend in international crude oil prices, which declined 2.5% overnight. PPL, on the other hand, saw brisk buying in the last half hour, making day’s high. Among construction sector, STCL hit upper circuit, garnering significant trading volumes in the process, on the back of better expectation of results and construction activity to take place at the behest of Government. Among scrips, UNITY led the volumes with 60.1M shares, followed by PIBTL (31.2M) and HASCOL (26.8M).

· The Index closed at 41,187pts as against 41,382pts showing a decline of 195pts (-0.5% DoD). Sectors contributing to the performance include Banks (-85pts), Cement (-67pts), Textile (-44pts), Pharma (-37pts) and O&GMCs (-19pts).

· Volumes declined from 481mn shares to 368.4mn shares (-23% DoD). Average traded value also declined by 18% to reach US$ 94.3mn as against US$ 114.8mn.

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

· Stocks that contributed positively to the index include HUBC (+96pts), PPL (+19pts), THALL (+13pts), GHGL (+13pts) and DAWH (+10pts). Stocks that contributed negatively include LUCK (-48pts), SEARL (-39pts), UBL (-30pts), HBL (-27pts) and POL (-23pts).