KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed declining trend during the outgoing week ended on Oct 29, due to heavy selling in various sectors.
BRIndex100 decreased by 166.39 points on week-on-week basis closed at 4,137.14 points. Average daily trading volumes stood at 436.261 million shares.
BRIndex30 declined by 702.47 points to close the week at 21,061.66 points with average daily turnover of 302.605 million shares.
KSE-100 index plunged by 1,378.00 points on week-on-week basis and closed below 40,000 level at 39,888.00 points. Average daily trading volumes on ready counter slightly improved by 0.9 percent and stood at 469.60 million shares as compared to previous week’s average of 465.61 million shares. Average daily trading value on the ready counter increased by 19.1 percent and stood at Rs 18.86 billion.
The foreign investors also remained on the selling side and withdrew $21.344 million from Pakistan capital market during this week. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 247 billion to Rs 7.399 trillion.
“Tracking sell-off in global equity markets on the back of uncertainty regarding US elections and increasing cases of Covid-19 (major economies recording highest ever daily increase in cases), KSE-100 index pared gains achieved on the first trading day (up 1.4 percent on positive developments on FATF), to close the week at 39,888 points, down 3.34 percent on week-on-week basis”, an analyst at AKD Securities said.
Major sell-off during the week was witnessed in Commercial Banks—down 4.9 percent (despite above expectation results in the banking space as foreigners continue to exit emerging markets), Textiles—down 7.2 percent (as major export markets gradually limit business activity), and E&Ps—down 4.8 percent (oil prices coming under pressure over demand concerns, he added.
Top performers during the week were FFBL (up 10.8 percent), STJT (up 8.8 percent), GHGL (up 8.5 percent), UNITY (up 7.1 percent), and HUBC (up 6.1 percent) whereas laggards were ILP (down 13.7 percent), PAEL (down 10.9 percent), POL (down 10.6 percent), BYCO (down 10.4 percent) and GATM (down 10.2 percent).
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that the market started positively, carrying on from good news last week of the third consecutive monthly C/A surplus and buoyed further by the flow of corporate results, where many companies reported high growth in quarterly earnings. However, the momentum couldn’t be sustained, given this shortened week coincided with the futures’ rollover.
More pressure was added due to the slump in global markets as coronavirus cases continue to rise, causing a drop in oil prices (down 9 percent). Moreover, cases in Pakistan have also risen over the past few days, leading the government to re-impose the lockdown partially on some businesses, whereas the threat of a more severe lockdown looms round the corner if new cases continue to emerge at a rapid rate. Ultimately, the market ended on 39,88 points, down 3.3 percent on WoW basis.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020