Pakistan Stock Exchange remained under pressure during the outgoing week ended on December 28, 2018 due to selling in various sectors. BRIndex100 lost 161.25 points on week-on-week basis to close at 3,851.48 points. Average daily trading volumes stood at 78.314 million shares. BRIndex30 decreased by 757.62 points to close at 20,468.68 points with average daily turnover of 53.003 million shares.
KSE-100 index declined by 1084.02 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 37,167.02 points. Trading activities slightly improved as average daily volumes on ready counter increased by 5.0 percent to 110.35 million shares as compared to previous week's average of 105.12 million shares. Average daily trading value increased by 6.0 percent to Rs 4.99 billion. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 99 billion or 1.3 percent to Rs 7.681 trillion.
An analyst at AKD Securities said developments on the political front kept noise higher during the week as the joint investigation team (JIT) submitted its report to the Supreme Court on fake account case. "We attribute the decline in the market index to period-end adjustments, and redemptions in mutual funds as the unit-holders switch to income fund from equities. As such, we witnessed net-selling from Insurance ($2.19 million) that has been providing key support to the market in recent times, followed by Mutual Funds ($6.2 million) while their selling was mainly absorbed by Banks ($4.57 million)", he said.
Nearly similar news flows dominated the macros this week with key updates being the government of Pakistan set to launch two foreign currency denominated bonds to plug-in BoP financing gap and deciding to get away from FO based power production (Negative for Refineries and PSO). Across-the-board selling was witnessed in the market with Cement (down 4.5 percent), Oil & Gas (down 3.8 percent where volatility in international oil prices also played a part) and followed by Banks (down 3.1 percent). Performance wise, top laggards in AKD universe were BAFL (down 8.63 percent), UBL (down 7.99 percent), FCCL (down 7.33 percent), DGKC (down 7.24 percent) and EFOODS (down 7.00 percent) whereas gainer was FATIMA (up 7.03 percent) whereas FFC and APL showed stability.
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that the local equities plunged as political noise created panic among investors during the week. The KSE-100 index declined by 2.8 percent to 37,167 level, as the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing money laundering submitted its report to the apex court on fake accounts that were laundering Rs 42 billion. This was followed by the federal government placing some 172 names, including important members of a mainstream political party, on the Exit Control List (ECL).
Investors' concerns on the economic front stayed put where news flows regarding tough conditions from the IMF and declining forex reserves outweighed optimism that could have streamed from UAE pledging $3 billion to Pakistan's reserves and government launching Diaspora and Panda bonds. Moreover, news flows regarding discontinuation of power generation through furnace oil took the Refineries down by 7 percent. Apart from that, other heavy weight sectors such as Cement (down 5 percent) and Autos (down 4 percent) added to the index correction.
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