KARACHI: Pakistan equities on Tuesday witnessed bullish momentum throughout the day on back of changes made in Finance Bill. The Benchmark KSE-100 surged by 717.60 points or 1.77 percent and closed at 41238.07 points level. The market showed recovery after a decline of 400 points in the previous trading session. This recovery at local bourse came after the amended finance bill for the remaining months of FY19 was read out during Tuesday’s session of the National Assembly. The volume and value traded Tuesday were relatively high with 83.303 million and 5,598.053 million respectively. The advance to decline ratio in the broader market remained in the favor of bulls; 241:80 and 37 scrips unchanged. The key highlights of mini budget were increase in federal excise duty on imports of luxury items including vehicles expensive cell phones. Customs duty was increased on more than 5,000 luxury items while increase in regulatory duty was imposed on import of more than 900 items. Tax relief revoked from salaried persons earning more than Rs200, 000 per month. Tax rate for the highest income tax slab was raised from 15 percent to 30 percent. Buying was largely driven by value hunters with cements and steel heavyweights. Active participation was witnessed in the banking sector with United bank Limited (UBL) gaining 1.68 percent, Habib Bank Limited (HBL) gaining 1.55 percent, Bank Alflah Limited (BAFL) gaining 2.21 percent and National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) gaining 1.44 percent closed in the green zone. Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) gained 1.80 percent from the Exploration and Production (E&P) sector following the declaration of its FY18 result, where the company posted an EPS of Rs23.24 and a cash payout of Rs1.50 per share along with a bonus of 15 percent. Published in Daily Times, September 19th 2018.