Pakistan equities closed positive Tuesday with benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 270 points, closing at 40,596 levels, up 0.7 percent. Local bourse started trading sideways in the initial hours but later gained 270 points on the news that Pakistan is looking forward to sign billions of dollars of investment deals with Saudi Arabia during an upcoming visit of Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, including a multibillion dollar oil refinery in Gwadar. On the economic front, January-2019 trade deficit expands by 4 percent YoY to US$2.46 billion, whereas seven months FY19 trade deficit is down 10 percent YoY. Moreover, January-2019 remittances are up 6 percent YoY to US$1.74 billion, seven months FY19 remittances up 12 percent YoY. Major sectors kept the market upbeat where top scrip, PPL (+1.0%), OGDC (+2.4%), ENGRO (+0.6%), HUBC (+0.8%), FFC (+1.5%), UBL (+0.5%), LUCK (+3.8%) and POL (+2.4%) cumulatively contributed 207 points to the positivity. As per the latest stats by PAMA, auto industry witnessed a decline of 4% YoY in car sales where INDU sales were up 16% YoY. PSMC closed limit down as the company’s sales witnessed a sharp decline of 15% YoY (flattish MoM). PTC announced its financial results for the year ended 2018 EPS of Rs.1.46/share with no cash payout. Average daily traded value stood at $47 million, up 4 percent while volume stood at 165 million, up 23 percent. Furthermore, major contribution to total market volume came from ANL (-1.1%), KEL (+4.3%), UNITY (-3.2%) and DGKC (+4.9%). “We expect the market to recover in the upcoming session on the back of Saudi Arabia Crown Prince’ Pakistan visit”, said an equity analyst Danish Ladhani. After a sideways opening, investors embarked on a roller coaster ride as the Index oscillated in both directions for most part of the day; however strong buying in Lucky Cement, DG Khan Cement and Cherat Cement changed the complexion in the later stages. Volumes chart remained dominated by retail/speculative names i.e. Azgard Nine Limited, K-Electric, Unity Foods and Pak Elektron Limited. The four shares together contributed 55mn shares or 33 percent of the total traded volumes in the regular market. An equity analyst at Elixir Research Murtaza Jafar expects the market to resume its upside to the levels of 40,800/41,000 levels while a break would lead to a revisit to former highs of 41,500/700 levels. Published in Daily Times, February 13th 2019.