KARACHI: The Pakistan equity market witnessed a lacklustre session on Friday, where the benchmark KSE-100 index made an intraday high of 116 points and an intraday low of 212 points to close at 43,011, losing 61 points. Traded volumes decreased by 14 percent day-on-day (DoD) to 140 million shares in Friday’s trading session while value traded decreased to $ 55 million. Most of the dull activity can be attributed to political uncertainty and lack of positive triggers, said equity analyst Maaz Mulla. Major contribution to total market volumes came from Azgard Nine Limited (ANL) that lost 6.27 percent value on the news flow that NAB has authorized an inquiry against the ANL’s directors on corruption charges while Pak Elektron Limited (PAEL) losing 3.07 percent and UNITY losing 4.36 percent constituted 52 million shares out of the All Shares of 140 million shares. “We expect the market to depict a similar trend and recommend investors to see any upside in the market as an opportunity to sell”, added Mulla. Major contribution to the index came from Pakistan Petroleum Limited PPL gaining 1.50 percent as the company announced discovery of hydrocarbons from exploratory well “Adhi South X-1” in Adhi Mining Lease in Rawalpindi district. Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) with 0.97 percent gains and Pakistan Oil Fileds (POL) with 1.54 percent gains were also the contributors to the Index from oil sector. On the flipside, major laggards of the index were MCB losing 1.54 percent, DG Khan Cement losing 2.82 percent and Pakistan State Oil (PSO) losing 1.59 percent contributed 62 points to the index. Mixed sentiments were witnessed in the banking space where heavyweights MCB National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and United Bank Limited (UBL) closed negative; however, Habib Bank Limited closed positively. Exploration and Production (E&P) sector closed higher than its previous day close as crude oil prices edged higher after two days of sell-offs. Published in Daily Times, March 10th 2018.