Bullish sentiments prevail

Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed bullish trend on the back of healthy buying by both local and foreign investors during the outgoing week ended January 19, 2018. BRIndex100 gained 146.65 points on week-on-week basis to close at 4,755.17 points. Average daily volumes stood at 167.239 million shares. BRIndex30 increased by 818.54 points to close at 24,490.94 points with average daily volumes of 112.020 million shares.
Pakistan's benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 1,245.11 points on week-on-week basis and closed on 44,178.83 points. Trading activities on the ready counter remained low as average daily volumes decreased by 33.4 percent to 184.13 million shares as compared to previous week's average of 276.37 million shares. Average daily trading value declined by 27.6 percent to Rs 8.82 billion.
The foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $31.5 million during this week, whereas local mutual funds were net sellers of $12.1 million. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 188 billion to Rs 9.093 trillion.
An analyst at AKD Securities said gathering steam and cutting through political noise, backed by conducive fundamentals hinting at a strong results season, and renewed interest from mutual funds, FPI, the KSE-100 index climbed 2.9 percent closing at 44,179 points. Encouraging developments over the CAPEX up cycle in construction related cements and steel space furthered sentiment, while a peaceful show of political opposition to the ruling PML-N government in Punjab allayed fears of possible shutdowns or elongated agitation.
Stocks leading the bourse higher included GWLC (up 13.5 percent), CHCC (up 11.4 percent), DGKC (up 9.1 percent), LUCK (up 7.0 percent), whereas laggards were EFOODS (down 3.2 percent), PTC (down 1.7 percent) and KEL (down 0.15 percent).
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that bullish sentiments prevailed during the week at the local bourse, with the KSE-100 index closing 2.9 percent higher at 44,179. Political news remained at the forefront, however protest rally held during the week failed to create any major impact, which calmed investors' nerves, resulting in positive sentiments at the bourse in subsequent sessions. On a sector-wise basis, Cements (up 6.1 percent), Textiles (up 1.2 percent) and Fertilizers (up 3.1 percent) were key outperformers.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the benchmark index remained choppy during the week as investors were panicky on account of protest planned by the joint opposition parties to pressure ruling government but a rather underwhelming show could not dampen investor sentiments which resulted in strong rally this week with the bourse closing at 44,179 points, up by 2.9 percent.
Pertinently, this year has turned out surprisingly well with investors tossing the KSE-100 index higher to achieve 11 positive sessions out of the 15 trading days in Jan'18 which cumulatively added 3,707 points or 9.2 percent to the index.
In the week under review, sectors that led bullish returns were: i) Commercial banks (up 337 points) amid foreign buying, Cements (up 259 points) due to attractive valuations, Fertilizer (up 154 points) given robust export numbers and Automobile Assemblers (up 113 points) as stringent import policy on cars lifted sentiments of the sector. Meanwhile, Refinery and Sugar sector remained under pressure as the FO scenario builds pressure (down 27 points) and excess sugar issues sustain.