KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed bullish trend and the index hit historic highest levels in its history during the outgoing week ended on March 29, 2024 on the back of aggressive buying by both local and foreign investors coupled with institutional support.
The benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 1,853.28 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 67,005.11 points. The KSE-100 index closed on its historic highest ever level of 67,142.12 points on Thursday. The index hit 67,307.63 points intra-day high on Friday, which was its highest ever intra-day high level, but closed on slightly lower level due to profit taking in some stocks on the last day of the week.
Trading activities also improved as average daily volumes on ready counter increased by 12.1 percent to 330.73 million shares during this week as compared to previous week’s average of 294.99 million shares while average daily traded value on the ready counter increased by 6.9 percent to Rs 11.79 billion against previous week’s Rs 11.03 billion.
BRIndex100 soared by 224.13 points during this week to close at 6,919.23 points with average daily turnover of 278.258 million shares.
BRIndex30 increased by 591.91 points on week-on-week basis to close at 22,583.98 points with average daily trading volumes of 187.116 million shares.
The foreign investors also remained net buyers of shares worth $3.558 million during this week. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 277 billion during this week to Rs 9.447 trillion.
“Week remained bullish with the benchmark (KSE-100) index breaking its previous closing highs and exceeding the 67,000 level”, an analyst at AKD Securities said.
Overall, the first four trading days cumulatively added around 2,000 points, with the index closing at 67,005points (up 1,853points/2.84 percent WoW) on Friday, following a slight profit-taking session noted on the last day of the week.
Positivity loomed over the successful last review of IMF’s SBA, the new incumbent government’s steps and commitment towards reforms. Furthermore, a new tax regime ordered for retailers and wholesalers, piloting initially in major cities, aimed to broaden the tax base. While similar taxation measures have failed previously, if successful this time, they could set the stepping stone for tax base broadening.
Additionally, with FTSE Russell retaining Pakistan in the secondary emerging market for the next six months, further optimism was advanced.
Sector-wise, Transport, Woollen and Tobacco sectors were amongst the top performers, up 16.8 percent/10.0 percent/6.8 percent WoW respectively. On the other hand, Jute, Leasing Cos., and Textile weaving were amongst the worst performers with a decline of 4.0 percent/3.7 percent/2.3 percent WoW.
Flow wise, major net selling was recorded by Companies with a net sell of $7.6million. On the other hand, Insurance absorbed most of the selling with a net buy of $9.0million.
Company-wise, top performers during the week were PTC (up 24.7 percent), KTML (up 17.9 percent), SCBPL (up 12.8 percent), FFBL (up 12.0 percent) and THALL (up 10.3 percent), while top laggards were SHEL (down 5.0 percent), PGLC (down 4.9 percent), PIBTL (down 3.9 percent), ASL (down 3.8 percent) and FCEPL (down 3.3 percent).
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 index reached all-time highs of 67,000 this week, taking WoW gains to 3.0 percent.
PIA’s momentum persisted this week, surging by an additional 23 percent fuelled by the accelerating privatization proceedings of the national carrier. The company’s Board of Directors gave the green light to its unbundling and privatization efforts, signalling a significant step forward in the process.
Concurrently, the new government reiterated its firm commitment to finalize the transaction by the end of June, further boosting investor confidence in PIA’s future prospects.
Besides PIAA, the government also disclosed its plans to sell ODGC shares to Gulf investors. Moreover, the government clarified its plan to get IMF’s nod on PIAA privatization and discuss a new ‘larger and longer’ fund facility in the upcoming spring session to be held in mid-April.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
Comments
Comments are closed.