Equities remain gloomy

Pakistan Stock Exchange remained under pressure during the outgoing week ended on March 15, 2019 due to selling in various sectors. BRIndex100 lost 90.75 points on week-on-week basis to close at 4,017.16 points. Average daily volumes stood at 85.266 million shares. BRIndex30 decreased by 569.14 points to close at 20587.25 points with average daily turnover of 66.052 million shares.
KSE-100 index declined by 643.28 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 38,306.95 points. Trading activities remained thin as average daily volumes on ready counter decreased by 18.3 percent to 93.27 million shares as compared to previous week's average of 114.17 million shares. Average daily trading value declined by 20.4 percent to Rs 3.69 billion.
The foreign investors remained net sellers of equities worth $15.6 million during this week as compared to previous week's outflows of $3.5 million. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 113 billion to Rs 7.873 trillion.
"Marking the 6th consecutive week to close in the red, the index settled at 38,307 points, down 1.7 percent on week-on-week basis," an analyst at JS Global Capital said.
On the political front, productive talks on the Kartarpur corridor suggest that relations with India seem to have started to normalise after a tense few weeks. Moreover, refineries came under pressure after reports that the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) will impose emission standards limiting the marine sector to using Furnace Oil (FO) with sulphur content of less than 0.5 percent from January 2020, thereby curbing the already weak demand for FO in the country. Resultantly, the Refinery sector (down 6.8 percent) was among the worst performing along with Cements (down 4.4 percent), Engineering (down 4.8 percent) and Automobile Assemblers (down 4.9 percent). On the other hand, both Textiles and Fertilisers outperformed the KSE-100 by 1.5 percent.
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the market climate appeared gloomy this week with investors cautiously navigating through murky waters. As economic headwinds continue to subdue overall growth, market participants have hopes attached to a potential agreement with the IMF to bring the economy back to the right track and improve sentiment.
Sector-wise negative contributions came from Commercial Banks (149 points), Cement (120 points), Oil and Gas Exploration Companies (109 points), Oil and Gas Marketing Companies (76 points) and Power Generation and Distribution Companies (53 points). Whereas, sectors that contributed positively include Tobacco (48 points) and Textile Composite (7 points). Scrip-wise major laggards were LUCK (68 points), MCB (50 points), POL (49 points), HBL (48 points) and OGDC (39 points).