Buying spree at the local share market remained continue on the fourth consecutive week on the back of foreign and institutional support and the benchmark KSE-100 index maintained its crucial level of 12,000 points during the outgoing week ended April 27, 2007.
The KSE-100 index sustained its upward journey in four out of five sessions and closed at 12,235.19 points level, up by 143.66 points on week-on-week basis, while the junior free float market capitalisation-based KSE-30 index surged by 170.69 points to close at 15,164.23 points level.
Trading activity was dull during the week under review as the average ready market volume declined by 25.57 percent to 249.45 million shares as compared to previous week''s volume of 335.16 million shares. However, the average futures market turnover surged by 9.07 percent to 77.55 million shares against 71.10 million shares traded during the previous week. The overall market capitalisation stood at Rs 3.54 trillion at the end of the week.
The start of the market was positive on Monday but the market witnessed dull trading activity with low volume due to the first day of implementation of ''Client Level Netting'' in Deliverable Future Contracts. Selling pressure pushed index in the negative zone and it touched 11,983.41 points intra-day low before closing at 12,016.18 points, losing 75.35 points.
J.P. Morgan''s positive report that KSE-100 index would reach 14,000 points level, the increase in oil prices in the international market and the institutional support invited fresh buying on Tuesday helped the KSE-100 index to close at 12,151.53 points level with the net gain of 135.35 points.
The buying rally remained continue on Wednesday and the index gained another 14.50 points and closed at 12,166.03 points level.
The bullish trend remained continue on Thursday on the back of fresh buying by foreign investors. The KSE-100 index closed at 12,208.87 points level with the net gain of 42.84 points.
The fresh foreign and institutional buying supported the index to continue its upward journey and the KSE-100 index closed at its second highest level of 12,235.19 points with a net gain of 26.32 points on Friday.
Khurram Schehzad, an analyst at Invest Capital & Securities, said the market is few points away to smash its all time high of 12,274 points level as the current buying spree continues despite limited availability of CFS to the investors. The support induced by the foreign investors'' interest can be gauged through the above $700 million SCRA numbers.
The results season, being in full swing, has so far kept the market in the north zone. Other positive factors fuelling market rally this week included total foreign investment touching $5.56 billion in the country and improved ratings and outlook for the leading Pakistani banks by Moody''s. In addition, the development related to the Barclay''s-ABN Amro merger on the international front were also taken well by the market.
A few negatives, however, surrounded the market this week as well. Depressed Urea sales figures, NIT sell-off snag and investors being short of funds in the ready market for taking new exposures kept the market in check.
The top-three outperforming sectors on week-on-week basis were investment banks, insurance and textile with 10 percent, 7 percent and 6.4 percent of capital gains, respectively. Conversely, the top-three sectors, which were in the red zone in terms of capital loss, were glass and ceramics with 5.4 percent, refineries and automobile assemblers, both with 3.2 percent each during the week.
Farhan Aziz Khan, of JS Global Capital Limited, said that healthy corporate announcements boosted investors'' confidence especially in the outlook of banks. Almost all the banks declared better than expected results, causing the banking sector to outperform the broader market by a wider margin of 4.6 percent. The E&P companies'' results were in line with the expectations.
On the other hand, the cement sector, whose results were not as good as anticipated, underperformed the market. Nonetheless, some of the cement stocks showed better performance amid news about cement exports to India. Foreign buyers are still excited on Pakistan market. This was evidenced by upward movement in SCRA balances, which reached its record high to $708 million and alone during the outgoing week, $31 million have flown in.