Stocks lost momentum on Wednesday as investors’ participation remained muted throughout the session. KSE-100 witnessed a range bound session and eventually clocked at 34,401.42 points after losing 6.63 points. The day started on a positive note as index added 249.68 points, to record an intraday high at 34,657.73 during early trade. However, failing to hold the ground, index recorded an intraday low of 34,356.75. The early gains were led by Banking sector but lost the rally due to profit taking. Similarly the index was also lifted by exploration & production sector which witnessed a rally following a surge in international benchmark Brent crude oil price. The oil stocks also lost early momentum as investors resorted to profit taking. Brent crude price rose 2.1%and touched $40.12 for the first time in 3 months in early European trading, but fell to around $39.27 at 10.30 GMT. The price surged following reports that Russia and several other OPEC+ members have signaled an inclination for an extension of production cuts by one month. The $40/ barrel oil mark comes as a breather for the energy industry after Brent plunged to lows not seen since the Second Gulf War in 2003, falling to just above $20 per barrel in recent months. U-S benchmark West Texas Intermediate also recovered and rose 1.6% to $37.41 a barrel. In April, U.S WTI oil price plunged to a historic low of almost -$40 per barrel as demand evaporated during the COVID-19 outbreak. Meanwhile, investors are also closely following the reduction in profit rate on national saving scheme and cut off yield on T Bills. Reduction in the profit rates will pick up market sentiments as investments affected due to a drop-in rate of profit, will be relocated to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).The rate cut may also indicate that state Bank of Pakistan may follow the suit and further cut the benchmark interest rate. The government has slashed the rate of profit by 48-90 basis points on various saving schemes. It is the second rate cut in six weeks after the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reduced the benchmark interest rate by 100 basis points about three weeks ago to 8%. While, the cut off rates for Market Treasury Bills sold by State Bank of Pakistan for 3, 6 and 12 months fell to 8.1298, 7.9757 and 7.7101%. At Kse-100 total volume traded for the index was 95.39 million shares. While the overall trading volumes declined from 221.04 million shares in the previous session to 129.95 million shares, recording 42% decline. Average traded value also fell by 21%, from $52.2 million to $41.5 million. The volume chart was led by TRG Pakistan Limited, followed by Pak Elektron Limited and Pak Petroleum Limited, while the scrips exchanged 7.76 million, 7.39 million and 6.96 million shares, respectively. Sectors that weighed down the index included Fertilizer losing 31 points, Cement losing 18 points, Pharmaceuticals losing 17 points, Investment Banks losing 13 points and Automobile Assembler losing 13 points. Among the scrips the most points taken off the index was by ENGRO which stripped the index of 20 points followed by Habib Bank Limited with 18 points, Dawood Hercules Corporation Limited with 13 points, National Bank of Pakistan with 9 points. Sectors that pushed up the index were Power Generation & Distribution with 21 points, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 20 points, Textile Composite with 15 points, Oil & Gas Marketing Companies with 12 points and Automobile Parts & Accessories with 9 points. Among the scrips Hub Power Company Limited led the gains which contributed 22 points followed by Bank Alfalah Limited with 15 points, Pakistan Oilfields Limited with 13 points, Pakistan Petroleum Limited with 8 points. Global Markets Global equities rallied on the fresh hopes of revival of economic activity as authorities lift covid-19 lockdown restrictions. Major sectors including insurance continue to picks up major benchmarks in Europe and Asia on the hopes of economic recovery. In Europe, the markets gained ground, with German DAX leading the gains, to close 2.94% higher followed by CAC-40 in France adding 2.68% to the index. In UK , FTSE-100 also gained 2.13%. German index saw Lufthansa stocks to surge 4.3% during afternoon trade on the hopes of $10 billion bailout package. While the French index witnessed luxury goods group LVMH’s, edging 0.4% higher. Asian markets also jumped on fresh optimism pushed by reopening of economies. South Korea’s Kospi led gains among the region’s major markets as it rose 2.87% to close at 2,147, with shares of industry heavyweight Samsung Electronics skyrocketing 6.03%. The index was also lifted after South Korea unveiled a massive 35.3 trillion won supplementary budget, raising the total stimulus to 270 trillion won. Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index rose 1.37%, as of its final hour of trading as shares of Chinese tech giant Alibaba surged 4.5%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 also saw decent gains as it advanced 1.29% to finish its trading day at 22,613.76. Chinese stocks closed little changed, with the Shanghai composite closing flat adding only 0.07%. In U.S, market sentiments were boosted at Wall street- picking up Dow Jones Industrial Average by 302 points, or 1.2%. The S&P 500 gained 0.9% while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.4%. Wednesday’s gain put the Dow on pace for its third consecutive gain. The sentiments picked pace on the back of better-than-expected economic data and reopening of U.S economy. Automatic Data Processing (ADP) Research Institue revealed and Moody’s Analytics reported private sector unemployment fell by another 2.76 million in May. The ADP number was far less than the 8.75M estimate. The reason for the wide disparity was not immediately clear. While, Data from the Institute for Supply Management showed the U.S. services sector contracted less than expected, rebounding from an 11-year trough.