KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange remained under pressure and the benchmark KSE-100 Index witnessed a decline of 1,390 points or 3.3 percent on month-on-month basis (USD-based return of negative 17.3 percent) during July 2022 to close at 40,150 points.
The primary culprit behind this dismal performance has been the freefall in the Pak rupee (highest MoM decline to PKR 239/USD from PKR 205/USD at the close of last month), which makes future inflationary reading more susceptible to an adverse upsurge, an analyst at Arif Habib Limited said.
As economic conditions tailspin, domestic businesses appear anxious over rising cost push inflation, whereby major sectors remain wary of the ability to completely pass on the impact in the backdrop of compressing domestic demand, he said. Albeit, the benchmark bourse took a sigh of relief as the government reached a staff level agreement with the IMF by mid-month, paving the way for disbursement of USD 1.2 billion (subject to approval of the IMF’s Executive Board).
However, shortly after, political clouds once again took a toll on the market with the Supreme Court ruling out CM Punjab in favour of the opposition’s candidate, he said. “We do highlight that the slowdown in market activity is primarily owed to investors anxiously awaiting the release of the IMF tranche as two more credit rating agencies (Fitch and S&P Global), have downgraded Pakistan’s outlook from neutral to negative, reflecting the rising risks to external financing”, he added.
Average traded volume and value during July 2022 went down by 31 percent (145 million shares) and 30 percent (USD 21 million) MoM, respectively.
During July 2022, scrip-wise volumes were led by WTL (10 million shares), UNITY (7 million shares) and CNERGY (6 million shares). Scrip-wise value was led by TPLP ($2.6 million), UNITY ($1.5 million) and TRG ($1.1 million).
On sector-wise basis, volumes were led by Technology (24 million shares), Chemical (17 million shares) and Refinery (14 million shares). Sector-wise value was led by Technology ($3.2 million), Refinery ($2.0 million) and OGMCs ($1.9 million).
Positive contributors during July 2022 were Technology (up 234 points), followed by OGMCs (up 35 points), whereas negative index contribution was led by Fertilizer (down 448 points), Cement (down 314 points) and Autos (down 185 points).
Scrip-wise positive contributions were led by TRG (up 157 points), SYS (up 75 points), MEBL (up 57 points), LOTCHEM (up 56 points) and FABL (up 33 points). Meanwhile scrip-wise negative contributors during the month were ENGRO (down 179 points), EFERT (down 146 points), LUCK (down 134 points), FFC (down 118 points) and EPCL (down 106 points).
Scrip-wise performance chart during the month was led by LOTCHEM, TRG, FABL, HGFA and SCBPL, each posting positive return of 25 percent, 19 percent, 15 percent, 14 percent and 14 percent respectively. On the flip-side, PSMC, ATRL, HCAR, EPCL and CHCC posted the negative returns (24 percent, 23 percent, 22 percent, 17 percent and 16 percent respectively).
In terms of sectors, Mutual Funds Sector was the best performing sector posting a return of 14 percent followed by Technology (8 percent), Real Estate (6 percent) and Modaraba (3 percent). Negative returns were led by Leather (15 percent), Automobile Parts (15 percent), Refinery (15 percent), Automobile Assemblers (12 percent), Textile Weaving (10 percent), Cement (10 percent) and Transport (9 percent).
The foreign investors remained net buyers of equities with net fresh inflow of $7.484 million. Buying was primarily seen in Technology ($6.4 million), E&P ($1.2 million), Textile ($0.9 million) and Food ($0.7 million), whereas selling was witnessed in Banks ($1.8 million) and Cement ($0.7 million).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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