Roller coaster ride witnessed

Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed bullish trend during the outgoing week ended on January 10, 2020 on the back of healthy buying by both local and foreign investors. BRIndex100 gained 102.1 points on week-on-week basis to close at 4,542.08 points. Average daily volumes stood at 278.231 million shares.

BRIndex30 increased by 693.23 points to close at 24,156.10 points with average daily turnover of 198.345 million shares. KSE-100 Index surged by 883.75 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 43,207.05 points. Trading activities also improved as average daily volumes increased by 7.6 percent to 303.23 million shares as compared to previous week's average of 281.79 million shares. Average daily trading value increased by 13.2 percent to Rs 78.20 billion.

The foreign investors also remained net buyers of shares worth $7.02 million as compared to net selling of $7.29 million during previous week. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 884 billion to Rs 43.207 trillion.

An analyst at AKD Securities said that the market went through a roller coaster ride during the outgoing week driven by geopolitical tensions. Nosedive at the start of the week on heightened geopolitical tensions was followed by volatility in subsequent two sessions as markets looked for clarity however, towards the end of the week subsiding tension formed the basis of strong recovery.

Top performers from the AKD Universe were BOP (up 12.5 percent), BAFL (up 6.6 percent), LUCK (up 6.5 percent), HMB (up 6.0 percent) and MEBL (up 5.4 percent) while the top laggards were INDU (down 11.8 percent), HASCOL (down 7.2 percent), MLCF (down 5.8 percent), ASTL (down 5.3 percent and KAPCO (down 4.1 percent). Highest volumes during the week were witnessed in BOP (165.4 million shares), KEL (155.3 million shares), UNITY (83.62 million shares) and TRG (74.4 million shares).

An analyst at JS Global Capital said that despite strong tension over the geo-political situation, the KSE-100 index gained momentum, closing up 2.1 percent on week-on-week basis at 43,207.

The assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani by USA was followed by a sharp rise in global commodity prices and decline in global equity markets. However, President Donald Trump's speech in midweek that addressed the current stance of US was received as easing tensions between the two countries. This boosted investor confidence, supporting a bounce back in the equity markets, and correction in commodity prices.