KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed positive trend during the outgoing week ended on Oct 09, due to buying mainly by local investors.
BRIndex100 gained 92.69 points on week-on-week basis to close at 4,236.01 points. Average daily volumes stood at 388.697 million shares.
BRIndex30 increased by 702.18 points during this week to close at 21,576.30 points with average daily turnover of 282.902 million shares.
KSE-100 index surged by 727.60 points or 1.8 percent on week-on-week basis and closed at 40,798.43 points. Trading activities slightly improved as average daily volumes on ready counter increased by 6.6 percent to 416.73 million shares as compared to previous week’s average of 390.98 million shares. Average daily trading value however decreased by 3.3 percent to Rs 13.23 billion during this week.
The foreign investors however remained on selling side and withdrew $7.446 million from Pakistan capital market during this week. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 64 billion to Rs 7.602 trillion.
“With higher than expected inflation and heightened political tension (after announcement by opposition parties' alliance to hold rallies across the country) in the backdrop, KSE-100 index started the week on a negative note, down 2.5 percent at the close of first session of the week”, an analyst at AKD Securities said. After remaining jittery in the second session, recovery was finally witnessed during third trading session and the sentiment remained positive till close of the week, helping index close at 40,798 points, up 1.8 percent on week-on-week basis, he added.
Mid-week change in sentiment was backed by stellar cement sales (up 22 percent on year-on-year basis for September 2020, standing at 5.2 million tons – highest ever) and consequently cement sector remained in the limelight with a 4.3 percent on week-on-week basis increase. Similarly Oil and Gas marketing sector also posted an impressive return of 3.3 percent on WoW backed by expectations of a good result for the firth quarter FY21. Among other major sectors, banking sector's performance remained muted despite being attractive on valuations after State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) asked banks to close all accounts of ministries and divisions and transfer the balance funds to the federal government's central account with the SBP.
Top performers in the outgoing week were, UNITY (up 14.5 percent), KOHC (up 11.9 percent), ILP (up 10.9 percent), KTML (up 9.4 percent) and PAEL (up 8.8 percent), whereas laggards were NATF (down 16.2 percent), SERT (down 13.6 percent), AGIL (down 8.5 percent), KEL (down 7.4 percent) and COLG (down 7.4 percent).
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that after starting off with a near 1,000 points decline, there was steady improvement throughout the week with positive closes in the rest of the four sessions, with the KSE-100 index ending on 40,798, up by 1.8 percent.
Political disturbances emerged over the weekend, coupled with a higher-than-expected CPI reading, leading to the initial pressure. While adverse news continued to flow in, such as potential resignations from the national assembly by the opposition, these did not have the desired effect on the market. Moreover, the World Bank in its biannual report, South Asia Economic Focus, forecasted a 0.5 percent GDP growth rate for Pakistan, which is lower than most expectations.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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