Positive trend witnessed

Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed positive trend during the outgoing week ended on February 14, 2020 on the back of fresh buying in various sectors. BRIndex100 gained 22.55 points on week-on-week basis to close at 4,204.85 points. Average daily volumes stood at 150.290 million shares.

BRIndex30 inched up by 87.81 points to close at 21,568.17 points with average daily turnover of 113.595 million shares. KSE-100 index closed at 40,243.26 points, up 99.63 points or 0.2 percent on week-on-week basis. Average daily volumes on ready counter decreased by 0.1 percent to 167.53 million shares as compared to previous week's average of 167.64 million shares. Average daily trading value decreased by 10.9 percent to Rs 6.23 billion.

The foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $ 11.15 million during the week. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 12 billion to Rs 7.563 trillion.

An analyst at AKD Securities said that the week started with market witnessing a major sell-off (KSE-100 down 847 points) amid fears of global growth slowdown as cases of corona virus increased however subsequent slowdown in incremental cases helped return some confidence and market posted positive moves in subsequent session.

Momentum was carried through to mid-week with news of smooth progress in discussions with IMF while improvements on political front also provided support after fruitful discussions took place between government and some of its allies. Week ended on a negative note though amid yield of 12-month Treasury bill increasing by 39bps in the latest auction and investors booking profits after the mid-week rally. KSE-100 closed the week at 40,243 points, up 0.25 percent on week-on-week basis.

Top performers during the week included MLCF (up 4.17 percent), HUBC (up 4.09 percent) and HBL (up 3.61 percent), while PAEL (down 7.12 percent), KAPCO (down 6.66 percent) and GWLC (down 4.14 percent) remained the worst performers.

An analyst at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 finally broke free of the 4-week chain of negativity, remaining stagnant to close at 40,243, and this was not surprising after a 7 percent decline over the past 4 weeks.