Pakistan Stock Exchange ends year at highest level

RECORDER REVIEW

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed positive trend during the outgoing week ended December 30, 2016 and the benchmark KSE-100 index increased by 1117.24 points to close at the highest ever level of 47,806.97 points.

Buying was seen mainly by local investors and institutions. However, foreign investors remained net sellers and withdrew $17.9 million from Pakistan stock market during this week as compared to an outflow of $45.5 million recorded during the previous week. Cement and Oil & Gas Exploration sectors saw major net selling of $5.8 million and $4.5 million respectively.

Trading activities however remained low during the week as average daily volumes on the ready counter posted a decline of 15 percent on week-on-week basis to 286 million shares while average daily value decreased 14 percent to Rs 14.8 billion ($141.1 million) over the week.

An analyst at AKD Securities said that inching towards another milestone of 48,000 level, KSE-100 continues to set new records this week with the index closing at an all time high of 47,807 points, up 2.52 percent on week-on-week basis.

Activity at the bourse, however, tapered 15.06 percent on week-on-week basis with average daily volumes standing at 285.91 million shares with DSL 114.5 million shares, Bank of Punjab 108.7 million shares, KEL 80.7 million shares, DCL 75.2 million shares and TRG 45.2 million shares leading the board. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 271 billion to Rs 9.628 trillion.

Performance leaders during the week were EFOODS (+14.3 percent) HCAR (+8.6 percent), FCCL (+7.7 percent), SHEL (+7.5 percent) and SNGP (+7.3 percent); while laggards included HMB (3.6 percent), AICL (2.9 percent), PSMC (1.2 percent), POL (1.1 percent) and PTC (0.7 percent).

After a phenomenal end to CY16, KSE-100 posted remarkable return of 45.7 percent in the calendar year, outperforming the world equity markets. The market is likely to largely continue its positive trend over the near term in the absence of any negative trigger, the analyst said. However, room for volatility in the next week remains where risk could emerge in the form of international oil price swings on potential concerns on rising US inventories and resumption of Panama Leak case proceedings.

An analyst at Topline Securities said that the KSE-100 index continued to experience buoyancy in the concluding week where local bourse touched the highest ever levels in the last trading session of 2016.

Investor sentiment remained positive towards the banking and cement sectors while slowdown in foreign selling further supported the local market in the outgoing week.

The KSE-100 index posted an increase of 2.5 percent over the week to close at 47,807 index levels. To point out, local bourse generated a return of 12 percent in December 2016, where the index remained positive in 16 out of a total 21 trading sessions.

The KSE-100 index registered a gain of 46 percent in the year 2016. The local index emerged as a top performer among the regional indices while remained fifth top performing equity index in the world. Top three gainers over the outgoing week remained Tobacco, Food & Personal Care and Commercial Banks which were up 17.6 percent, 4.8 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively. The textile sector posted a decline of 0.6 percent during the outgoing week.