Bullish trend witnessed

Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed bullish trend during the outgoing week ended January 05, 2018 on the back of healthy buying by both local and foreign investors. BRIndex100 gained 270.93 points on week-on-week basis to close at 4,565.83 points. Average daily volumes stood at 186.966 million shares. BRIndex30 increased by 1787.78 points to close at 23,354.23 points with average daily volumes of 140.151 million shares.
Pakistan's benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 2052.51 points or 5.1 percent on week-on-week basis and closed at 42,523.99 points.
Trading activities on the ready counter, however, remained low as average daily volumes decreased by 0.8 percent to 212.91 million shares as compared to previous week's average of 214.52 million shares. Average daily trading value declined by 2.8 percent to Rs 8.49 percent.
The foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $22.957 during this week. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 317 billion or 3.7 percent to Rs 8.887 trillion. An analyst at JS Global Capital said that the bulls rejoiced at the local bourse as the KSE-100 index ended the week (up 5.1 percent) with its twelfth consecutive positive daily closing. The performance remained particularly commendable given damning tweet by US President Donald Trump, following which US suspended military-related funding to Pakistan and placed Pakistan on a special watch list. Value buying was visible in large cap sectors such as Cements (up 8.0 percent), Banks (up 6.8 percent) and E&Ps (up 4.2 percent).
An analyst at Topline Securities said that first week of New Year saw market to rally 5 percent, which is the highest in last 15 years. Despite US-Pak Tensions over US President's tweet and news of halt in military assistance, market saw a bull run to close at 42,500 index level supported by foreign and local institutional buying. This makes it the 12th consecutive trading session when market has remained in positive zone, gaining 4,605 points/12 percent. Key factors supporting this rally included rising oil pricing and expectations of interest rate hike.
Stocks including HBL (up 2 percent), UBL (up 3 percent), LUCK (up 3 percent), FFC (up 4 percent) and DAWH (up 4 percent) added 238 points to the index, while PPL (down 1.0 percent), POL (down 1.0 percent), MTL (down 1.0 percent), KEL (down 1.0 percent) and TRG (down 2 percent) withheld 37 points. On the sector front Commercial Banks added 787 points whereas Cement and Fertilizer added 309 points and 231 points respectively while Tobacco and Chemical cumulatively withheld 29 points.