The pre-election rally last week ended on February 17, 2008 supported the KSE-100 index to close at its seven-week high level of 14,353.84 points, with a gain of 415.51 points on the back of improving law and order and political situation in the country. The parallel free float market capitalisation-based KSE-30 index surged by 594.65 points, settling at 17,295.97 points level.
The market witnessed healthy trading and the average daily volume of ready market increased 87 percent to 260 million shares as compared to previous week''s 138.5 million shares. The average daily turnover of futures market surged by 22 percent to 32 million shares against 26.2 million shares previously.
Market capitalisation surged by Rs 135 billion on weekly basis to Rs 4.423 trillion. The outflow of portfolio investment in the country equity market continued as the SCRAs balances declined by $26.7 million to a negative $90.5 million.
On Monday, the market started under pressure and the index lost 53.37 points to close at 13,884.96 points level. The KSE-30 index declined by 45.50 points to close at 16,655.82 points level.
On Tuesday, the market took upward trend on the back of increasing oil prices in the international market and the KSE-100 index closed above the 14,000 psychological level at 14,096.91 points with a gain of 211.95 points, while the KSE-30 index surged by 318.67 points and settled at 16,974.49 points level.
On Wednesday, although the market witnessed a range-bound session, the market managed to close in positive and the KSE-100 index closed at 14,115.89 points level, up by of 18.98 points. The KSE-30 index surged by 41.86 points to close at 17,016.35 points level.
On Thursday, the market again witnessed a bullish session and the KSE-100 index surged by 167.17 points to close at its intra-day high level of 14,283.06 points level while the KSE-30 index gained 219.94 points and settled at 17,236.29 points level.
The bullish trend continued on Friday and the KSE-100 index gained another 70.78 points to close at Rs 14,353.84 points level. The KSE-30 index gained 59.68 points and settled at 17,295.97 points level.
Bilal Hameed, an analyst at JS Global Capital, said that the absence of political disturbances and improved law and order situation in the country during the week brought back investors'' confidence. Moreover, expectation of a likely partnership between the party winning the February 18 elections and Musharraf also supported the market. "We expect this pre-election rally to continue if elections take place smoothly", he added.
During the week, GDR talks of NBP, Kapco and HBL also supported the market. Some important companies announced their results during the outgoing week including PSO, MCB, UBL and Hubco. Better results and buyouts in the banking sector caused buying in the banking stocks. Thus, the sector''s market cap rose by 4.2 percent on weekly basis. Similarly, PSO results announced on Friday also improved investors confidence in the scrip. In addition, oil prices improved in the international market creating a rally in the E&P sector. The sector rose by 4.0 percent on weekly basis.
Ayub Ansari at Invest Capital & Securities said sectors that gained the most were Technology by 6.6 percent, Insurance by 6.55 percent and Cement by 4.24 percent, while the major losers were Woolen by -9.27 percent, Refineries by -4.26 percent and Vanaspati by -2.71 percent. Movement during the week in the rest of the blue chip sectors, namely Commercial Banks, E&P, Fertiliser and OMCs was recorded at +4.21 percent, +3.97 percent, +2.85 percent and +1.34 percent respectively.