The market opened strong rising 500pts at one time on the back of strong recovery in Oil stocks after OPEC agreement on output cuts. However once news of Indian firing across the LOC with Pakistan broke investors were unnerved and the market surrendered all its gains closing 60pts down. Turnover was once again heavy at 712mln while value traded touched an year high at Rs.21bln as big caps saw increased activity.

Banks, E&Ps rose during the day while chemicals lost ground.

Top performers were WYETH, HINO, INDU, SHEL, POL and OTSU rising 5pc.

ICI nd TGL lost 5pc while GTYR and LINDE was down 3pc.

The tension with India has added volatility to an otherwise firm market.

The market closed up 60pts to end at 40355. It was a seesaw session, with the index losing 70 odd points in the morning and then gaining upto 170pts later in the day. Turnover was down to 435mln shares while value traded was Rs13.7bln, perhaps signalling less activity in second tier stocks that have driven volumes to decade highs. This weeks average volume is markedly below last weeks average of 720mln shares by about almost 40pc.

INDU, PSMC, TRG closed at upper cap. TRG recorded a massive Rs2.1bln in value traded. ICI continued its runup after announcing a infant milk formula plant in Pakistan. We continue to expect consolidation.
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The market closed down 582pts for the week at 39782. Avergage volumes for the week were 727mln shares while value traded was Rs17.6bln. Rising tensions with India hit the index hard, with some room for the fall made by over exhuberant trading in second tier stocks.


Chemicals were the only bright spot in trading this week with ARPL, BERG and ICI rising 7/5/2pc.

LUCK and KOHC managed higher closings this week at 3 and 2pc, while banks shed 2-3pc.

HINO and HCAR were the top performers this week with 10pc gains.
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MUREB, TRG. PNSC, GHNI. BYCO lost 8-11pc. Going forward, should the cross border war hysteria die down, we expect the market to consolidate as some of the buzz around second tier stocks peter out.