KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed highly volatile activity during the outgoing week as the investors remained cautious due to their concerns over political and economic situation.

BRIndex100 gained 17.66 points on week-on-week basis to close at 4,670.02 points. Average daily trading volumes stood at 294.052 million shares.

BRIndex30 closed at 20,964.92 points, down 1096.03 points with average daily turnover of 190.680 million shares.

KSE-100 index increased by 344.29 points during this week and closed at 44,821.53 points. Trading activities slightly improved as average daily volumes on ready counter increased by 28.8 percent to 341.88 million shares as compared to previous week's average of 265.36 million shares. Average daily traded value increased by 19.6 percent to Rs 12.21 billion.

The foreign investors remained on the selling sides and withdrew $49,388 from local capital market during this week. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 8 billion to Rs 7.794 trillion.

"The feel good factor returned as the weekly performance of the index closed in green", an analyst at AKD Securities said. Building anticipation of revival of IMF program and likelihood of civil-military leadership reaching consensus over the appointment of new ISI chief fuelled the market performance, he added.

Commercial Banks emerged as the out performers during the week amid increased likelihood of further rate hikes in the upcoming MPS, gaining 3.6 percent on week-on-week basis, followed by Pharmaceutical and Cement sectors, up 2.0 percent and 1.6 percent, owing to revision in prices.

Sector-wise, cement prices increased by Rs 35-45/bag to Rs 690-710/bag whereas Automobile sales jumped 68 percent on YoY to 82,000 units.

Top performers of the market included GATI (up 15.6 percent), ABL (up 14.1 percent), FFBL (up 13.6 percent), HBL (up 8.0 percent) and LOTCHEM (up 7.4 percent). Meanwhile laggards included HASCOL (down 20.1 percent), KAPCO (down 15.1 percent), ANL (down 15.1 percent), TRG (down 14.7 percent) and JLICL (down 10.3 percent).

Top volume leaders included WTL (213 million shares), UNITY (92.3 million shares), TELE (89 million shares), TREET (81.4 million shares) and HASCOL (62.6 million shares).

Flow wise, Insurance remained the major buyers with (net buy of $12.2 million) followed by Mutual Funds (net buy of $3.4 million) while Companies stood on the other side with (net sell of $3.3 million) followed by Individuals (net sell of $3.2 million).

An analyst at JS Global Capital said that Pakistan equities closed the volatile week on a flattish note at 44,821 level, just 344 points over last week's closing. Investors were keen to make the most of this volatility; average daily traded volume and value jumped by 29 percent and 20 percent respectively.

This week, Commercial Banks held the title of the best performing sector with a gain of 3.6 percent over last Friday which reflects a shift in investors' preferences towards defensive stocks in a rising interest rate environment.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021