Equities depressed

Pakistan Stock Exchange remained under pressure during the outgoing week ended September 29, 2017 due to prevailing political uncertainty in the country, analysts said. BRIndex100 lost 54.14 points on week-on-week basis to close at 4,614.56 points with average daily volumes of 128.873 million shares. BRIndex30 gained 435.87 points to close at 23,457.03 points with average daily turnover of 82.189 million shares.
The benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 340.93 points on week-on-week basis to 42,409.27 points. Trading activity on the ready counter remained low as average daily volumes decreased by 14.2 percent to 146.36 million shares as compared to previous week's average of 170.62 million shares. Average daily trading value declined by 30.7 percent to Rs 6.22 billion.
The market capitalization decreased by Rs 27 billion to Rs 8.856 trillion. Foreign investors remained net buyers of equities worth $ 0.52 million against a net inflow of $ 0.377 million during last week.
An analyst at AKD Securities said politics once again took the center stage deteriorating the market sentiment as the ousted premier Nawaz Sharif returned from London to appear before accountability court. Also, the NAB indicted finance minister Ishaq Dar in assets reference case further fuelling negative sentiments. In this backdrop, KSE-100 index lost 0.8 percent to end the week at 42,409 points. Performance-wise, top gainers during the week included FATIMA (up 13.88 percent), KEL (up 12.28 percent), POL (up 6.55 percent), FFC (up 5.91 percent) and PTC (up 4.17 percent), while major losers were NBP (down 15.32 percent), GWLC (down 7.62 percent), FCCL (down 5.19 percent), MLCF (down 4.69 percent) and LUCK (down 4.59 percent).
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that the investors endured another week of insipid market performance, as overhang of recent/ongoing political events combined with uncertain economic outlook continues to keep investors sidelined. There was, however, some interest witnessed in the Fertilizer sector (up 2.4 percent) on the back of strong August 2017 offtake and rising international urea prices and Oil & Gas Exploration sector as POL (up 6.5 percent) announced a new oil and gas find and international oil prices touched their highest levels since October 2015.
On the other hand, Cements (down 3.7 percent) were yet again a key laggard as provisional data for September 2017 suggests a decline of 18 percent on month-on-month basis in domestic demand during the month. Banks too dragged down the index as NBP (down 15.3 percent) is expected to take a significant hit of Rs 48 billion after the Supreme Court on Monday dismissed appeal filed by the bank with respect to its pension fund case. HBL (down 2.3 percent) also continues to face the ill effects of the recent fine imposed on it by the US Regulators. Key buyers were Mutual Funds with net buying of $6.2 million.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the benchmark KSE-100 exhibited a negative return of 0.80 percent this week.
This is chiefly attributable to apprehensions on local political front led by of ongoing inquiry against reigning finance minister, lack of triggers and mixed flows from foreigners. Sectors that kept the index under stress were Commercial Banks (down 223 points), Cement (down 165 points), Oil & Gas Marketing Companies (down 57 points) and Insurance (down 23 points). On the other hand market movement was supported by Fertilizers (up 61 points) given surge in international urea prices to $290/ton and Oil and Gas Exploration Companies (up 34 points) amid higher oil prices(up 3 percent) and POL discovery in Ikhlas Block.