The market remained volatile throughout the session Friday upon lack of triggers. Overall, KSE100 index gained 63 points to close at 39,306.5 points level. Activity improved today with 155 million shares traded as against 104 million shares traded in the last session. The country’s current account deficit went up by 37 percent month-on-month (MoM) to clock in at USD 1.66 billion in December 2018. Exploration and Production (E&P) stocks like Oil Gas Development Company (OGDC) gaining 0.42 percent, Pakistan Oil Fields (POL) gaining 0.15 percent and Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) losing 0.43 percent showed mixed performance despite Arab light price increasing to USD 61.4/bbl compared to USD 60.6/bbl Thursday. An equity analyst at Trust Securities & Brokerage Limited said positivity prevailed in the market as trigger came in the limelight including the meeting of Prime Minister with an executive team of US-based Cargill the provider of food, agriculture and industrial products who announced plans to invest over $200 million in Pakistan over the next three to five years. Macro was being tracked as foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) fell below $7 billion at the end of last week due to external debt servicing. Weekly FX report revealed that the SBP”s reserves decreased by $148 million due to external debt servicing and other official payments. Textile exports for the month of December 2018 were recorded at US$1.14 billion (+3.6%MoM/0.6% YoY), pulling up first half FY19 exports to US$6.65 million, relatively flattish YoY. Value-added exports continued their up-trend seen since July 2017 on the back of export incentives, taking first half FY19 export sales under the header to US$5.02 billion (+3.7%YoY), while non-value added segment pulled down overall growth, (-9.3%YoY in 1HFY19 vs. +3.3% YoY in the same period last year). Volumes charts again dominated by retail names i.e. K-Electric Limited (KEL), TRG Pakistan Limited (TRG) and Unity Foods (UNITY) which collectively traded 71 million shares. Published in Daily Times, January 19th 2019.