KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed bullish trend during the outgoing week ended on December 17, on the back of fresh buying on available attractive low levels.
The benchmark KSE-100 index increased by 504.90 points on week-on-week
basis and closed at 43,900.68 points. Trading activities also improved as average daily volumes on ready counter increased by 30.0 percent to 265.02 million shares as compared to previous week’s average of 203.83 million shares. Average daily traded value on ready counter increased by 13.3 percent and stood at R 8.37 billion.
BRInex100 gained 89.89 points on week-on-week basis to close at 4,508.85 points with average daily turnover of 231.235 million shares.
BRIndex30 surged by 1113.95 points during this week to close at 18,501.30 points. Average daily trading volumes stood at 162.612 million shares.
Total market capitalization increased by Rs 65 billion to Rs 7.519 trillion.
“Ending an otherwise volatile week, the KSE-100 index closed at 43,901 points, up 1.2 percent on week-on-week basis – the steepest performance in the past 4 weeks, with the catalyst being the forward guidance by the Central Bank”, an analyst at AKD Securities said.
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the SBP delivered another 100bps hike, taking the policy rate to 9.75 percent, and communicated to ‘pause’ monetary settings in the near term, expecting recent policy decisions to moderate demand pressures in the coming months. However, the sentiment was disturbed by the recently concluded TBILL auction with the cut-off yield remaining flat – reflecting a large divergence between the current policy rate and the yield.
Sector-wise, within major sectors, engineering and techs gained 10.4 percent and 10.3 percent respectively whereas Commercial Banks remained the laggard with flat returns while overall sectoral performance was led by Textile weaving (up 12.1 percent) followed by Woolen (up 11.3 percent).
Flow-wise, foreigners sold $3.5 million attributable to strategic portfolio alignment in the context of faster-than-expected tightening by the US Fed, which was absorbed by Companies and Individuals with net buy of $5.1 million and $2.7 million respectively.
Stock wise, top gainers were KTML (up 18.0 percent), UNITY (up 15.6 percent), PIOC (up 15.0 percent), ANL (up 14.4 percent) and CHCC (up 12.1 percent) while worst performers include MUREB (down 7.7 percent), SNGP (down 7.1 percent), ATLH (down 6.8 percent), MCB (down 4.2 percent) and NESTLE (down 4.2 percent).
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that the week started with dismal performance as market awaited clarity regarding the monetary policy action. The central bank on Tuesday increased policy rate by 100bps to 9.75 percent, as opposed to 175bps room implied by secondary market yields, also indicating that policy settings will remain broadly unchanged in the near-term.
The market reacted positively to the news and cyclical sectors got into limelight, especially after SBP’s indication of no policy move in January 2022. Nonetheless, concerns over macroeconomic indicators, continuous PKR depreciation, and immune behaviour of cut-offs in T-bill auction mid-week tempted investors to book gains the next day.
The market regained some confidence on the last trading day when yields in the secondary market dropped in reaction to SBP’s announcement of liquidity injection through OMOs for 63 and 7days.
Cements (up 5.8 percent) and Engineering (up 9.0 percent) were among the key performers this week.
An analyst at Spectrum Securities said that the benchmark index kicked off the week on a bearish note as investors remained cautious ahead of monetary policy announcements and rising inflation concerns. Consequently, the benchmark index marked its low of the week at 42,715. Following the announcement of MPS, the market witnessed a sharp upturn followed by some profit-taking which settled the KSE-100 at 43,901 with a gain of 505 points.
During the week, the cement sector remained in the limelight as it added 282 points to the benchmark index on the back of beaten-down levels and volatile in coal prices which incite investors to place their bets.
During the week, the bourse witnessed three sessions in favour of bulls while two sessions ended in red zone. The KSE-100 index oscillated between high and low of 44,507 and 42,715 levels respectively before it settled the week at 43,901.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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