KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed bullish trend during the outgoing week ended on August 04, 2023 on the back of aggressive buying by both local and foreign investors.
The benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 1,508.72 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 48,585.72 points. During the week, the index crossed 49,000 psychological level however closed below from this level due to profit taking in some stocks.
Trading activities also improved as average daily volumes on the ready counter increased by 31.0 percent to 492.42 million shares during this week as compared to previous week’s average of 375.90 million shares. The average daily traded value on the ready counter increased by 35.4 percent to Rs 17.07 billion during this week against previous week’s Rs 12.60 billion.
BRIndex100 added 160.50 points during this week to close at 4,946.37 points with average daily turnover of 447.699 million shares.
BRIndex30 increased by 1047.52 points during this week and crossed 17,000 level to close at 17,872.21 points with average daily trading volumes of 324.052 million shares.
The foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $5.297 million during this week. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 192 billion during this week to Rs 7.290 trillion.
An analyst at AKD Securities said that the week started on a very optimistic note, with the market accelerating by 958points from the beginning, and closing at 48,035points by day end. This was majorly driven by the SBP’s decision to keep policy rate unchanged at 22 percent despite the market expectations of an increase.
Moreover, positive sentiments encircling Finance Ministry’s expectations of “eased out” inflation during July and to stay within 25-27 percent further contributed to market being optimistic on Monday.
On the contrary, CPI figures announced on Tuesday materialized to 28.3 percent YoY and negated the original statement made by the Finance Ministry. Moreover, trade deficit decreased from $1,863million in June 2023 to $1,607million in July 2023.
The index remained bullish on Wednesday with a gain of 534points and settled at 48,765points and then cascaded again to 48,611points after staying volatile on Thursday. Overall, the KSE-100 index ended gaining 1,509points (up 3.20 percent WoW) during the week and closed at 48,586points while transcending to 48,765points on Thursday.
Sector wise, Modarabas/Sugar and Allied Industries/Chemical have been worst performers, declining by 5.7 percent/3.6 percent/3.6 percent on a weekly basis, whilst Close-Ended Mutual Fund remained an anomaly clocking a 21.9 percent gain.
Company-wise, top performers during the week were HGFA (up 23.0 percent), CNERGY (up 17.9 percent), OGDC (up 17.4 percent), POML (up 16.0 percent), and THALL (up 15.2 percent), while top laggards were COLG (down 6.2 percent), UBL (down 4.2 percent), FABL (down 2.3 percent), YOUW (down 2.3 percent), and CEPB (down 2.2 percent).
Flow-wise, major net selling was recorded by mutual funds with a net sell of $5.97million. On the other hand, Companies absorbed all of the selling with a net buy of $8.82million.
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that the investors began the week with robust optimism, touching 6-year high at 48,765.
Index, however, succumbed to bearish pressure in the later part of the week as it closed at 48,585, up 1,509 points WoW.
On the economic news front, SBP maintained Policy Rate at 22 percent in MPC meeting held on Monday due to declining inflation, with FY24’s CPI projected at 20 percent-22 percent. Market had anticipated a hike based on the recent IMF report, which recommended tightening monetary policy measures.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023