KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed positive trend during the outgoing week ended on March 25, 2022 due to fresh buying on available attractive low levels in various sector stocks.
However, trading activities remained low as the investors remained cautious due to political unrest in the country.
The benchmark KSE-100 index increased by 521.18 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 43,551.15 points. Average daily trading volumes on ready counter declined by 17.4 percent and stood at 143.74 million shares as compared to previous week’s average of 173.92 million shares while average daily traded value on ready counter stood at Rs 4.68 billion, down 0.4 percent.
BRIndex100 gained 92.00 points during this week to close at 4,352.69 points with average daily turnover of 118.034 million shares.
BRIndex30 surged by 524.40 points on week-on-week basis to close at 15,399.41 points with average daily trading volumes of 79.280 million shares.
Flow-wise, Banks/DFIs and foreigners were the net sellers, offloading $4.12 million and $4.59 million, respectively which were majorly absorbed by mutual funds with a net buy of $5.33 million and individuals being net buyers with $2.63 million. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 84 billion to Rs 7.358 million shares.
An analyst at AKD Securities said that local political climate and global geopolitics continue to have its footprint on KSE-100 where the week started with heightened local political tensions taking a toll on the market and KSE-100 going down by 1.8 percent in the first session. Even positive news on economic front could not prevent the aforementioned sell-off as current account deficit for Februar’22 declined to $0.5 billion against $2.5 billion in January’22. However, a relief rally was witnessed the next day as resolution of Reko Diq issue provided optimism to the market.
Overall, in the next few sessions, market remains uncertain with thin volumes where build up to the no-confidence and heightened political noise kept investors at bay. Resultantly, market closed the week at 43,551 points, up 1.21 percent on week-on-week basis.
Refinery sector remained among the top performers as news suggested Saudi Arabia is exploring to invest in Pakistan Refinery’s upgradation projected which spurred investor interest across the whole sector. Fertilizer also performed 2.9 percent for the week as increasing urea prices globally and locally improved future earnings potential of the sector. Automobile parts and accessories declined by 1.6 percent for the week as depreciating currency and increasing steel prices pressurized the sector.
Stock wise, top performers were FFBL (up 7.4 percent), TRG (up 6.7 percent), EPCL (up 6.2 percent), AVN (up 5.3 percent) and LUCK (up 5.3 percent), while laggards were BOP (down 10.3 percent), BNWM (down 5.0 percent), THALL (down 4.7 percent), SHFA (down 4.7 percent) and JSCL (down 3.6 percent). An analyst at JS Global Capital said that after posting a sharp decline last week owing to political uncertainty and the Russia-Ukraine issue, the market exhibited a recovery trend this week.
The week started on a positive note in response to the encouraging CAD numbers for February-2022 which declined by 78 percent on month-on-month basis.
The market however remained volatile after that as investors apparently lack confidence and would prefer to wait until some clarity on the political front emerges.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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