Jubilant week witnessed

Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed bullish trend during the outgoing week ended on December 6, 2019 on the back of healthy buying in almost all sectors.

BRIndex100 gained 161.49 points on week-on-week basis to close at 4,280.49 points. Average daily trading volumes stood at 400.492 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 917.4 points during this week to close at 22,250.15 points with average daily turnover of 266.321 million shares.

KSE-100 index surged by 1,444.60 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 40,732.25 points. Trading activities also improved as average daily volumes on ready counter increased by 33.7 percent to 464.85 million shares as compared to previous week's average of 347.81 million shares. Average daily trading value increased by 31.1 percent to Rs 16.21 billion.

Total market capitalization increased by Rs 285 billion or 3.8 percent to stand at Rs 7.796 trillion.

"Carrying on with the momentum gained in the last few weeks, KSE-100 witnessed a jubilant week, increasing by 1,444 points to 40,372 points, making it the 6th week in a row to have closed in positive," an analyst at AKD Securities said.

Improved macroeconomic conditions, particularly trade and current account balance, provided the initial push which was followed by Moody's changing Pakistan's outlook, to stable from negative, creating euphoria in the market and particularly banks, he said.

Though profit-taking and increasing coal prices weighed on cement stocks which dented the overall sentiment as well in second trading session of the week, the market gained strength and even overlooked a higher than expectations CPI reading (12.7 percent against expectation of 12.3 percent), marching on to breach the 40,000 mark, he added.

Top performers in AKD Universe were PSMC (up 21.86 percent), ABL (up 12.12 percent), KEL (up 11.90 percent), FCCL (up 8.49 percent) and NBP (up 8.05 percent), while laggards were KAPCO (down 7.00 percent), GWLC (down 6.85 percent), HASCOL (down 6.72 percent), ENGRO (down 4.42 percent) and PIOC (down 1.74 percent).

An analyst at JS Global Capital said that continued positive news flows kept the rally going at KSE-100 index as it closed up 4.0 percent consecutively for the second week. The local bourse rejoiced Pakistan's contracting trade deficit for November 2019 ($1.8 billion, negative 35 percent on year-on-year basis), continued double-digit growth in tax collection (up 17 percent) during November-2019 and upgrade in outlook by Moody's Investors Service to 'Stable' for Pakistan and Big-five banks. Also, recent net inflow of $431 million and potential inflows of $239 million and $1.3 billion from China Mobile and Asian Development Bank, respectively, are expected to offset the $1.0 billion Sukuk payment made earlier this week.

Major buyers during this week were Individuals (plus $20 million) and Mutual Funds (plus $7 million); while Banks (negative $22 million) and Other Organisations (negative $3 million) broadly opted to book gains.