KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange remained under severe selling pressure during the outgoing week ended on January 19, 2024 due to geopolitical tension between Pakistan and Iran.
The benchmark KSE-100 index plunged by 1,355.41 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 63,282.23 points.
Trading activities also remained low as average daily volumes on ready counter decreased by 30.5 percent to 388.80 million shares during this week as compared to previous week’s average of 559.81 million shares while average daily traded value on the ready counter declined by 14.0 percent to Rs 13.77 billion during this week against previous week’s Rs 16.01 billion.
BRIndex100 decreased by 154.69 points during this week to close at 6,488.29 points with average daily turnover of 350.938 million shares.
BRIndex30 declined by 1,142.57 points on week-on-week basis to close at 22,963.89 points with average daily trading volumes of 280.848 million shares.
Total market capitalization declined by Rs 188 billion to stand at Rs 9.265 trillion.
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that geopolitical tension between Pakistan and Iran, kept KSE100 volatile this week.
On January 18, 2024, Pakistani military conducted strikes against Iran in reaction to missile launches by Iran within Pakistan’s borders on the previous day, breaching Pakistan’s airspace. As tensions heightened, China expressed its readiness to mediate between the two nations, and the US endorsing Pakistan’s position.
“During the week local bourse remained depressed, amid political uncertainty and western border tension which caused panic in the market”, an analyst at Arif Habib Limited said.
In addition to this, SBP has confirmed that it has received inflows of $706million on the successful completion of the first review by the IMF. The SBP reserves are anticipated to reach $8.9billion next week. Moreover, UAE rolled over $2.0 billion for one more year, which were maturing in January 2024.
Sector-wise negative contributions came from cement (down 230 points), oil & gas exploration companies (down 222 points), power generation & distribution (down 148 points), automobile assembler (down 82 points) and miscellaneous (down 78points). Meanwhile, the sectors which mainly contributed positively were Fertilizer (up 42points).
Scrip-wise negative contributors were PPL (down 234 points), LUCK (down 103 points), HUBC (down 100points), MTL (down 91 points) and HBL (down 68 points). Meanwhile, scrip-wise positive contributions came from ENGRO (up 104 points), MEBL (up 54points), MARI(up 45 points), UBL (up 39points) and POL (up 31 points).
Foreigner selling was witnessed during this week, clocking in at $1.19 million compared to a net buy of $1.88 million last week. Major selling was witnessed in Banks ($2.6 million) and E&P’s ($1.4 million). On the local front, buying was reported by Insurance ($11.5 million) followed by Companies ($1.8 million).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024