Equities go downhill

Pakistan Stock Exchange remained under pressure during the outgoing week due to selling in various sectors. BRIndex-100 lost 119.01 points on week-on-week basis to close at 4,483.18 points. Average daily volumes stood at 163.402 million shares. BRIndex-30 decreased by 797.58 points to close at 22,535.51 points with average daily turnover of 116.859 million shares.
Pakistan's benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 846.05 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 41,742.24 points. Trading activities however improved as average daily volumes on ready counter increased by 34.7 percent to 177.48 million shares as compared to previous week's average of 131.72 million shares. Average daily trading value increased by 38.6 percent to Rs 7.58 billion.
The foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $10.0 million during this week. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 75billion to Rs 8.677 trillion. An analyst at AKD Securities said that the benchmark KSE-100 index went downhill in four of the five trading sessions, resultantly closing the week at 41,742 points, down 1.99 percent on week-on-week basis. Fearing gas price hike and its spillover effects on industries, investor sentiments had turned negative even before the ECC meeting. An inconclusive outcome with regards to fertilizer inventories, circular debt clearance and postponement of gas price hike led to further selling in the main board sectors, ramping the index down for rest of the week.
Performance leaders from AKD universe during the week were HASCOL (up 3.16 percent), FFBL (up 2.88 percent), NBP (up 2.29 percent) and BAFL (up 1.82 percent); while laggards included MLCF (down 9.14 percent), CHCC (down 9.06 percent), PIOC (down 8.14 percent), LUCK (down 6.43 percent) and FFC (down 5.97 percent).
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that the market participants let bears take control during the week as the KSE-100 index declined by 2 percent, closing at 41,742 levels. Investors remained lukewarm during the week as they awaited clarity over guidelines on the current economic scenario from the new government. Major sectors that led the decline were Cements (down 6.6 percent) and Power (down 4.1 percent). Moreover, Fertilizer sector declined by 4 percent during the week on the news of the government planning to make Fertilizer companies return Rs 10 billion windfalls that they earned out of subsidy.