KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange remained under severe pressure during the outgoing four-day week due to heavy selling on investor concerns over prevailing economic and political situation in the country.
The benchmark KSE-100 index plunged by 1,387.90 points on week-on-week basis and closed below 40,000 psychological-level at 39,942.05 points.
Due to investor lack of interest, trading activities remained thin as average daily volumes on ready counter decreased by 40.2 percent to 133.37 million shares as compared to previous week’s average of 223.02 million shares while average daily traded value on ready counter declined by 56.0 percent to Rs 3.60 billion against previous week’s Rs 8.19 billion.
BRIndex100 decreased by 138.61 points during this week to close at 4,039.95 points with average daily turnover of 116.227 million shares.
BRIndex30 declined by 659.67 points on week-on-week basis to close below 15,000 level at 14,413.45 points with average daily trading volumes of 80.053 million shares. The foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $0.5million during this week as compared to a net sell of $5.0million last week. Major buying was witnessed in E&P ($0.5 million) and Technology and Communication ($0.3 million). On the local front, selling was reported by Insurance companies ($0.7 million) followed by Individuals ($0.6 million). Total market capitalization declined by Rs 212 billion during this week to Rs 6.107 trillion.
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 index closed the week in red as IMF’s 9th assessment continues to be delayed, contingent on official assurances from friendly countries.
The benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 39,942 points, down 3.4 percent on week-on-week basis where Cement, Fertilizer and Banking sectors were major laggards.
On the economic front, Pakistan’s Balance of Payments for February 2023 came in positive at $0.92 billion, as it received $700million from China.
“In the outgoing week the stock market hovered in the red, mainly because of uncertainty over the resumption of the IMF programme,” an analyst at Arif Habib Limited said. The government announced a subsidy scheme without consulting the IMF, which could potentially cause further delays in unlocking the next tranche. As a result, PKR depreciated against USD by PKR 1.41 | 0.53 percent Wow, closing the week at 283.2/USD. Additionally, Sensitive Price Index (SPI), saw a record increase to 45.64 percent, due to a consistent rise in the price of essential commodities.
Sector-wise negative contributions came from Miscellaneous (down 210 points), Cement (down 191 points), E&Ps (down 186points), Fertilizer (down 180 points) and Banks (down 173 points), whereas, the sectors which contributed positively were Leather & Tanneries (up 5 points) and Modarabas (up 2 points).
Scrip-wise negative contributors were PSEL (down 211points), OGDC (down 87 points), PPL (down 79 points), EFERT (down 68 points) and ENGRO (down 61 points). Meanwhile, scrip-wise positive contribution came from SRVI (up 5 points), RMPL (up 4 points) and MTL (up 3 points).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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