The Karachi share market during last week ending on June 30, 2007, which was also the last week of fiscal year 2006-07, resumed an upward movement and the KSE-100 index crossed 13,800 points mark before closing at a new high level of 13,772.46 points, with a net gain of 379.99 points, or 2.8 percent, against previous week's closing at 13,392.47 points.
On the other hand, the KSE-30 index crossed 17,002.75 points level and closed at 16,993.51 points, with a gain of 294.04 points on week-on-week basis.
The market witnessed healthy trading activity during the week as the average daily volume of ready market increased by 19 percent at 20-week high level of 379 million shares as compared to 318 million shares traded a week earlier.
Market capitalisation rose to Rs 4.02 trillion. The main contribution to the rally came from banks, where higher profitability was the main trigger of investors' interest.
The start of the market was positive on Monday and the KSE-100 index closed at 13,540.45 points level with a net gain of 147.98 points due to continuous foreign investors' interest, increase in oil prices in the international market and UBL GDRs to raise more than $650 million.
On Tuesday, the market witnessed another bullish session and the index ended at its new high level of 13,571.14 points with a gain of 30.69 points as foreign investors' interest continued.
The market continued its upward journey on Wednesday and the benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 13,669.03 point with a net gain of 97.89 points. The KSE-100 index crossed 13,700 level on Thursday on the back of fresh buying mainly in banking and textile sectors and closed at 13,727.95 points level with a net gain of 58.92 points.
On Friday, which was the last trading session of FY07, the KSE-100 index crossed 13,800 points level and hit 13,806.38 points intra-day high before closing at its new highest level of 13,772.46 points with a gain of 44.51 points.
Farhan Aziz, an analyst at JS Global Capital Limited, said that heavy trading activity was witnessed in banking stocks, which alone accounted for one-quarter of the ready market turnover and contributed 154 points to the index in 379 points gain. BoP came out clean from the scandal that kept its share price under pressure during previous week.
This generated investors' interest in the sector. Likewise, over subscription of UBL's GDR and upcoming IPO of HBL further boosted investors' confidence in the sector. The SCRAs, the barometer to measure foreign investment in local capital markets, reached a record level of $978 million, signifying heavy foreign interest in Pakistan equity market.
Khurram Schehzad at Invest Capital & Securities Limited said that only three sectors went south with negative returns, including oil and gas sector with 0.1 percent decline over the week. Jute and leasing companies recorded decline of 2 percent and 0.4 percent on week-on-week basis.
Most of the top 5 performers include third-tier sector like Transport with 10.8 percent returns on week-on-week basis. Remaining performers included Synthetic & Rayon, Cable & Electrical Goods, Textile Composite and Automobile Parts & Accessories with 9.6 percent, 8.9 percent, 7.9 percent and 7.3 percent, respectively.
The blue chip sectors, leaving E&P, Banking, Cement, OMC, Fertiliser sectors, went north with 4.7 percent, 2.7 percent, 0.7 percent and 0.9 percent respectively on week-on-week basis.