The KSE-100 index remained negative in Friday’s session ahead of upcoming visit of Saudi Crown Prince scheduled to arrive in the country today for a two day visit. Activredity remained slow due to ambiguity regarding Saudi Prince’s visit. ‘We believe market participants have adopted a wait and see approach till the finalization of MoU’s with Saudi Arabia, US statement regarding terrorist attack in Kashmir was negative news for market. All of these were the reason that reduced investors’ confidence to trade in the market”, said an equity analyst at Al Habib Capital Markets. Initially, the index lost 145.95 but recovered on support from banks to close at 40,486.67 points, losing 20.31 points. Activity also remained weaker than yesterday with only 93 million shares traded Friday against 123 million shares traded yesterday, said an equity analyst at IIS Securities. During the day, the local bourse made highs and lows of +139 and -146 points, respectively. The top laggards, Habib Bank Limited (HBL) losing 0.2 percent, Oil Gas Development Company (OGDC) losing 0.1 percent, Hubco losing 1.0 percent, Fauji Fertilizer Company (FFC) losing 1.0 percent, Lucky Cement losing 0.4 percent, Pakistan Oil Fields (POL) losing 0.2 percent and Pakistan State Oil (PSO) losing 2.5 percent cumulatively contributed -71 points to the index. Mixed sentiments were seen in Fertilizers, Banks and Cements where ENGRO (+0.1%), DGKC (+1.4%), MCB (+0.2%) and UBL (+2.1%) closed positive while FFC (-1.0%), LUCK (-0.4%) and HBL (-0.2%) closed red. During the day, a total of 93 million shares changed hands at a total value of US$34 million, reflecting a 25 percent day-on-day (DoD) decline in each. Lotte Chemical, Bank of Punjab (BoP) and Siddiqsons Tin Plate Limited (STPL) were major contributors to the traded volume. Baluchistan Wheels Limited (BWHL) gaining 5 percent closed on upper lock after declaring an EPS of Rs 1.79 for second quarter FY19 as compared to EPS of Rs 1.30 for second quarter FY18. UBL (+2.25%), MCB (+0.33%), SMBL (+2.27%) and BAFL (+2.21%) closed positive due to reported foreign interest. Published in Daily Times, February 16th 2019.