KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange remained under severe pressure and nosedived to book huge losses during the outgoing week ended on February 16, 2024 due to panic selling on investor concerns over deteriorating political situation in the country after general elections. The benchmark KSE-100 index plunged by 3,070.79 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 59,872.96 points.
Average daily volumes on ready counter increased by 14.5 percent to 349.76 million shares during this week as compared to previous week’s average of 305.53 million shares however average daily traded value on the ready counter declined by 3.6 percent to Rs 13.50 billion during this week against previous week’s Rs 14.01 billion.
BRIndex100 decreased by 372.42 points during this week to close at 6,073.30 points with average daily turnover of 312.671 million shares.
BRIndex30 declined by 2,424.89 points on week-on-week basis to close at 20,321.06 points with average daily trading volumes of 242.490 million shares.
The foreign investors however remained net buyers of shares worth $5.231 million during this week. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 481 billion during this week to close at Rs 8.717 trillion.
An analyst at AKD Securities said that the market remained volatile throughout the week with volatility mirroring ongoing political uncertainty surrounding the formation of next government.
Despite being eight days since elections, clarity remained elusive. While signs pointed to PML-N securing the lower house, coalition building complexities persisted. Alongside, announced protests from major parties alleging electoral rigging deepening uncertainty.
Adding fuel to the fire, news of the IMF rejecting the proposed circular debt reduction and industrial tariff rationalization plan, further dampened investor sentiment.
Another blow during the week was gas price hike with effect from February’24, with highlighted increase of 175 percent in feed gas price fertilizer companies on the Sui network. However, amidst the tumult, remittances remained robust at $2.4billion in January 2024.
Sector-wise, leasing companies, and synthetic & Rayon were amongst the top performers, up 5.5 percent/2.0 percent respectively. On the other hand from main board, E&P, refinery, and OMC were amongst the worst performers with a decline of 6.5 percent/6.4 percent/6.2 percent.
Flow wise, major net selling was recorded by Brokers with a net sell of $5.9million. On the other hand, Foreigners absorbed most of the selling with a net buy of $5.2 million.
Company-wise, top performers during the week were PGLC (up 15.2 percent), EFUG (up 6.0 percent), GADT (up 5.8 percent), FATIMA (up 5.6 percent) and AGP (up 5.5 percent), while top laggards were OGDC (down 25.6 percent), NRL (down 18.7 percent), PTC (down 17.4 percent), PPL (down 15.9 percent) and PSO (down 14.1 percent).
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 index remained volatile throughout the week closing with 5.0 percent WoW decline.
So far, the KSE-100 index has lost 4,271 points or 7.0 percent since 8th February general elections due to lack of clarity over upcoming set-up of the new government.
Dialogues among leaders of pivotal political parties centred on the establishment of a new government and putting forth candidates for crucial positions, was the talk of the town during the week. Political news flow over-shadowed the strong corporate earnings and dividend announcements that came during the week.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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