KARACHI: Pakistan equities closed Tuesday positive in line with the rebound in global and regional markets as benchmark KSE-100 Index settled at 43,690 points level, up 0.4 percent day-on-day (DoD). The start to the trading day was on a dull note with stocks trading sideways in the early hours, however buying interest from institutions crept up in select sectors as the day progressed. The bourse kicked off sideways in the first half and later rallied in the later hours to close up 175 points on the back of rally in the banking sector. On the economy front, the Government of Pakistan revealed in its Debt Policy Statement FY18 an increase of 71 percent in domestic debt and 29 percent increase in external debt. Financials led gains with Habib Bank (HBL) 3.4 percent gain and United Bank (UBL) 2.3 percent gain coming under limelight after Supreme Court’s judgment on an increase in minimum pension payable to banking employees. After Financials, other sectors including oils and fertilizers also inched up and helped the index to rise as much as 0.8 percent on the day, however cements stalled the momentum in late hours with Lucky Cements losing 1.1 percent and DG Khan (DGKC) losing 2 percent, declined on profit-taking. Meanwhile, in its quarterly review overnight, MSCI announced no change for Pakistan a constituent that was largely anticipated by the market. “With KSE100 Index finding support around 43,500 levels, chartists now expect Index to recover more ground and test nearby resistance around 44000 in the coming sessions”, said Elixir Securities’ analyst Muhammad Arbash. Traded volumes slightly decreased by 5 percent DoD to 204 million shares while value traded plunged to $ 68 million. Top volume stocks were ANL (+5.59%), EPCL (+2.97%), TRG (-0.97%), LOTCHEM (+0.22%) and ASL (+0.33%). HBL (+3.29%) and UBL (+0.04) closed in the green after a news broke that the Supreme Court (SC) has announced decision to increase minimum pension payable to Rs8,000/month, which would be linked to 5% annual growth from here onward. An analyst at JS Research Ahmed Lakhani said this decision is expected to apply on prospective basis and may not result in any retrospective impact on the banks’ financials. In the Exploration and Production (E&P) sector, PPL (+0.73%) and OGDC (+0.04%) closed higher from previous levels. Furthermore, PAMA released Auto sales numbers where sales clocked in at a record high of 23,562 units during the month of January-2018, representing a growth of 13%YoY over 20,844 units sold in January-2017. “We expect market to remain volatile with flows from the local institutions and foreigners directing the market”, Lakhani added. Published in Daily Times, February 14th 2018.