Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) fell flat on the first trading day of the week amid lack of positive triggers and rising investors’ fear over mounting Covdi-19 cases. On Monday, Kse-100 witnessed a range bound session, and gained 52.43 points by the session’s closing, to clock at 40, 784.04 points. During the session, the kse-100 index witnessed a dull session as investors remained away from active participation due to rising uncertainty amid Covid-19 resurgence in the country. Equity investors’ feared that a second wave of Covid-19 may trigger major lockdown across the country, as the government has already begun imposing smart lockdown in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore. At kse-100, the index volumes decreased from 185 .32 million shares recorded in the previous session to 148.29 million shares, while the overall market volumes were recorded at 276.80 million shares, slightly decreasing from the previous session’s volumes of 350.44 million shares. The volume chart was led by Power Cement Limited followed by TRG Pakistan Limited and Pak Elektron Limited. The scrips exchanged 36.54 million, 31.98 million and 19.21 million shares, respectively. Sectors that resisted the pressure and kept the index afloat were Commercial Banks with 40 points, Technology & Communication with 40 points, Pharmaceuticals with 26 points, Chemical with 18 points and Fertilizer with 15 points. Among the scrips, most points added to the index was by Habib Bank Limited which contributed 40 points followed by TRG Pakistan Limited with 37 points, Muslim Commercial Bank with 24 points, Colgate-Palmolive (Pakistan) Limited with 22 points and GlaxoSmithKline Pakistan Limited with 13 points. However, the sectors which dented the index were Cement with 26 points, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 16 points, Automobile Assembler with 15 points, Textile Composite with 13 points and Insurance with 10 points. Among the scrips, most points taken off the index was by Lucky Cement Limited which stripped the index of 21 points followed by National Bank of Pakistan with 10 points, Pakistan Petroleum Limited with 8 points, Oil & Gas Development Company Limited with 8 points and EFU General Insurance Limited with 6 points. Global Markets: Covid-19 Vaccine hopes lifts stocks Global Markets witnessed bullish trend on Monday after U.S based drug-maker Pfizer (PFE) announced that an early look at data from its coronavirus vaccine shows it’s more than 90% effective. Global stocks were rallying even before the news of a potential coronavirus vaccine broke, as investors reacted positively to greater political certainty following Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential election. Markets were already expecting Biden to claim the White House following a sharp rally at White House in the previous week, even when the uncertainty over U.S presidential election results was looming large. In Asia, stocks witnessed robust gains, as Japan’s Nikkei 225 led the regional gains, which jumped 2.12% to close at 24,839.84, followed by Chinese stocks, as Chinese benchmark Shanghai composite edged up 1.86% to about 3,373.73. Following the trend, South Korea’s Kospi index also tracked regional trend and gained 1.27% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index also advanced about 1.18 as of its final hour of trading. European financial markets also reacted to positive news flow from Washington, which led pan-European Stoxx 600 to surge 3.8% by mid-afternoon, with banking stocks surging more than 11% to lead gains as all sectors except healthcare, and all major bourses, traded in positive territory. Among the regional markets, CAC-40 in France sky rocketed nearly 8% to lead the gains, followed by UK’s FTSE-100 and Germany’s DAX, that posted over 5% gains. In U.S, Wall Street also posted record gains on Monday as investors cheered trial data from drugmakers Pfizer and BioNTech indicating their Covid-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective and certainty over the future of Oval office. During the early trade, Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 1,317 points higher to hit an all-time high, while S&P 500 also reached a record, popping 3.5%. The tech heavy Nasdaq Composite also attempted to post modest gains and advanced 1.3%.