Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed bullish trend during the outgoing week ended on May 12, 2017 on the back of local investors and institutional support and the benchmark KSE-100 index crossed 51000 points psychological level for the first time in its history. At the end of the week the index closed at 51,750.91 points, with healthy increase of 1899.78 points.
Trading activities also improved significantly as average daily trading volumes on ready counter increased by 34.6 percent to 355.06 million shares as compared to previous week's average of 263.79 million shares. Average daily trading value increased by 32.7 percent to Rs 18.89 billion. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 327 billion or 3.3 percent to Rs 10.179 trillion. The foreign investors however remained on selling side and withdrew $2.47 million from the Pakistan stock market during this week as compared to net selling of $19.2 million in previous week.
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that the outgoing week witnessed bulls clamouring to buy equities ahead of the MSCI announcement expected on May 15, 2017 (early hours of May 16, 2016 in Pakistan). Activity remained concentrated in heavyweight stocks which are expected to be included in the main and small cap MSCI index. As a result, heavyweight sectors such as Oil & Gas (up 6.5 percent) and Commercial Banks (up 5.0 percent) posted strong gains. Overall repositioning helped index close at historic high level of 51,751 points, up 3.8 percent on week-on-week basis. Local institutional investors such as banks and local companies booked profits with $3.1 million and $8.2 million worth of selling during the week, while individuals bought assets ahead MSCI rebalancing with $7.4 million worth of purchases.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that trading at the local bourse took off on an optimistic note, continuing the positive momentum of last week. First day of the week marked a rally at the index with the KSE-100 closing at its all time high of 50,936 points. The re-inclusion of Pakistan in the MSCI Emerging Market Index was the primary reason for upbeat sentiments of market participants. Some of the potential scrips for MSCI EM inclusion contributed a total of 737 points to the index, namely HBL (261 points), MCB (190 points), LUCK (148 points) and OGDC (138 points). On a sector basis, Commercial Banks emerged as the top contributor (up 715 points) to the index amid exuberance over MSCI inclusion. Similarly, E&Ps contributed 363 points with Arab Light price rebounding (up 4.02 percent on week-on-week basis) on the back of a possible extension in the OPEC production cut. Cements added another 142 points to the index, fuelled by the investor interest in LUCK.
An analyst at BMA Capital said that the week marked a milestone for the local bourse as the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded a new all time high level closing at 51,750, up 3.8 percent. Electronic & Electrical Goods was the top performing sector with a return of 12.6 percent, followed by Oil & Gas and Multi Utilities, up 5.7 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively.
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