LAHORE - The equities wobbled throughout the first trading session after FY19 budget announcement with stock market initially kicking off on a positive note, making an intra-day high of +299 points. Nonetheless, the euphoria fizzled out quickly and the index witnessed a low of -118 points to ultimately close at 45,489 points, down by 52 points.

Although federal budget FY18-19 was largely a positive for the market, volatile market conditions prevailed as political uncertainty surrounding upcoming general elections continued to haunt investors. During the session, major heavyweights namely HBL (-0.92 percent), OGDC (-0.92 percent), PPL (-0.18 percent), ENGRO (-1.39 percent), MCB (-0.91 percent), BAHL (-2.26 percent) cumulatively contributed -118 points to the overall index and overall traded volumes witnessed accretion of 11 percent DoD to clock-in at 249m shares and value traded also improved to $74m.

Top volume stocks were BOP (+7.51 percent), LOTCHEM (+5.43 percent), UNITY (+5 percent), BYCO (-0.27 percent) TRG (+1.76 percent). Banks took a beating as bulge bracket HBL (-0.92 percent), MCB (-0.91 percent), BAHL (-2.26 percent), and BAFL (-1.48 percent) closed in the red on continuation of Super Tax, denting medium term earnings of the sector. In the cement sector however, LUCK (+1.47 percent), DGKC (+3.13 percent) and FCCL (+1.84 percent) closed positive as the total size of federal PSDP was proposed at around Rs1tr in FY18-19 budget, up by 37 percent YoY against revised estimates of Rs 750b for FY17-18. In the OMC sector, APL (-0.33 percent), SHEL (-0.55 percent) and PSO (-0.53 percent) closed in the red zone as Super Tax continued and government raised limits of Petroleum Levy to gear up for higher levies, raising prospects of price increases and potentially denting volumetric growth going forward. Experts expect market to exhibit volatility in the coming sessions due to overall political ambiguities in the market.