The KSE-100 index increased by 176.27 points during the four-day week ended on September 9, 2010, and closed at 9,879.33 points with very low volume. "Foreign investors' continuous interest and fresh buying by local institutions in some select stocks on dips supported the index to close in positive with gains", analysts said.
Foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $2.588 million. Mutual Funds were also net buyers of shares worth $2.9 million while companies and banks were net sellers of $3.0 million and $2.8 million, respectively. Trading remained very low and the average daily volume at ready counter drastically declined by 29.7 percent to 35.38 million shares as compared to previous week's 50.37 million shares.
Market capitalisation increased by Rs 42 billion to Rs 2.754 trillion. On Monday, the market opened under pressure and after witnessing mixed trend the index closed at 9,706.10 points with a meagre gain of 3.04 points with low volume of 19.631 million shares despite foreign investors' support.
On Tuesday, fresh buying by local institutions supported the index to register a gain of 42.04 points to close at 9,748.14 points with 19.266 million shares. On Wednesday, trading improved on the back of foreign investors and institutional support and the index surged by 142.99 points to close at 9,891.13 points with 52.211 million shares.
On Thursday, the market remained under pressure and after witnessing mixed trend the index closed at 9,879.33 points with 50.449 million shares. The market remained closed on Friday on account of Eid-ul-Fitr. Rabia Tariq, analyst at JS Global Capital, said that the week witnessed limited activity at the bourse due to the upcoming Eid holidays, and the average volume dropped to 35.38 million shares, down 29.7 percent, and the index closed at 9,879 points, up 1.8 percent. Moreover, limited corporate earning announcements--except for NML's which too came in the last trading session--and news reports of IMF delaying the release of two remaining tranches worth $2.6 billion to Pakistan, kept investors sidelined. However, the government of Pakistan announced the much awaited appointment of the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, with Shahid Hafeez Kardar chosen to replace the acting governor Yaseen Anwar.
Reportedly, the IMF set four pre-conditions--implementation of 'reformed GST', power sector reforms, more autonomy for SBP and clearing of the circular debt arising from commodity operations, to the release of two remaining tranches of $2.6 billion. However, it asked Pakistan to avail $450 million reserved for natural emergencies to help its flood affectees. Furthermore, CPI for August 2010 was recorded at 13.2 percent on year-on-year basis, while it rose 2.5 percent on month-on-month basis owing to Ramazan and the flood effect. However, encouragingly home remittances reached an alltime high of $933 million, up 18 percent on month-on-month basis as aid for the ongoing flood crisis is channeled in. higher than consensus FY10 EPS of Rs 8.29 (diluted) and a cash dividend of Rs 2.5 per share. Overall the scrip gained 5.7 percent on week-on-week basis. Amongst other scrips, MTL rose 4.4 percent on week-on-week basis on the back of its strong earnings and payout announced late last week.