Pakistan Stock Exchange remained under pressure during the outgoing week ended on April 12, 2019 due to selling in various sectors. BRIndex100 lost 19.62 points on week-on-week basis to close at 3,921.17 points with average daily volumes of 122.653 million shares. BRIndex30 decreased by 154.2 points to close at 20,008.72 points with average daily turnout of 93.004 million shares.
KSE-100 index declined by 183.94 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 37,337.87 points. Trading activities however improved as average daily volumes on ready counter increased by 25.0 percent to 148.36 million shares as compared to previous week''s average of 118.68 million shares. Average daily trading value increased by 35.8 percent to Rs 4.77 billion.
The foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $2.2 million during this week. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 49 billion to Rs 7.641 trillion.
An analyst at AKD Securities said that the market performance during the outgoing week remained under pressure, where KSE-100 index troughed at 36,579 points mid-week, lowest level since PTI''s government came to power. The market rumor of a potential price war in cement sector led to a further drag on the market performance. Meanwhile, a delegation led by Finance Minister Asad Umar reached Washington for crucial discussions on an IMF programme, on 8th April 2019. The discussions are expected to last till 15th April, which will be followed by official announcement of amnesty scheme. The government, which has yet to take stringent steps on the fiscal side, is expecting to raise Rs 120-150 billion from the Amnesty scheme.
Top performers during the week included HUBC (up 5.77 percent), PSO (up 4.62 percent) and NBP (up 4.06 percent), while CHCC (down 16.4 percent), PIOC (down 15.6 percent) and MLCF (down 14.1 percent) remained the worst performers.
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 index declined to its 3-year low level during the week. However, with expectation of support from state-owned enterprises brought an adrenaline rush to the local equities market, giving gain of 1.5 percent on the last trading session of the week. As a result, the week''s cumulative losses limited to 0.5 percent on week-on-week basis as the index closed at 37,338 levels.
During the week, trimmed cement prices in some regions of the country touched off the Cement sector. Consequently, Cement sector declined by 7.3 percent, underperforming the KSE-100 index by 6.8 percent. Cherat Cement (CHCC, down 16.4 percent), Pioneer Cement (PIOC, down 15.6 percent) and Maple Leaf Cement (MLCF, down 14.1 percent) were the highest laggards from the sector as well as from the KSE-100 index in this week. Moreover, the Pharma sector took a beating of 1.9 percent as the government initiated a crackdown against increase in medicine prices during the week.
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