KARACHI: The trading week at the Pakistan Stock Exchange started with bullish trend and despite some profit taking the market managed to close on positive note on the end on outgoing week ended on March 08, 2024.
The benchmark KSE-100 index increased by 468.07 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 65,793.76 points.
Trading activities also slightly improved as average daily volumes on ready counter increased by 1.6 percent to 425.01 million shares during this week as compared to previous week’s average of 418.50 million shares while average daily traded value on the ready counter increased by 6.4 percent to Rs 16.52 billion during this week against previous week’s Rs 15.52 billion.
BRIndex100 gained 69.24 points during this week to close at 6,785.95 points with average daily turnover of 384.988 million shares.
BRIndex30 added 506.90 points on week-on-week basis to close at 23,023.80 points with average daily trading volumes of 294.993 million shares.
The foreign investors also remained net buyers of shares worth $6.274 million during this week. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 42 billion to Rs 9.354 trillion.
An analyst at AKD Securities said that the week started on a positive note, with the index gaining 1.0 percent on the opening day. However, as the week progressed, profit-taking activities ensued, tempering some of the initial gains. Nonetheless, by the week’s end, KSE-100 index managed to maintain an upward momentum, closing with a gain of 468points/0.7 percent WoW at 65,326points by Friday.
With new Prime Minister taking office and issuing immediate directives focusing on engaging with the IMF and addressing privatization matters set an initial positive impetus for the week.
With new setup in place last week, IMF started rolling out new recommendations and is poised to unveil more with the appointment of the finance minister.
Sector-wise, Transport, Refinery, and Inv. Banks/Securities Cos. were amongst the top performers, up 20.4 percent/11.0 percent/6.6 percent WoW respectively. On the other, tobacco, modarabas, and textile weaving were amongst the worst performers with a decline of 4.9 percent/2.7 percent/2.6 percent WoW.
Flow wise, major net selling was recorded by Companies with a net sell of $6.8million. On the other hand, foreigners absorbed most of the selling with a net buy of $6.3million.
Company-wise, top performers during the week were NRL (up 23.5 percent), DAWH (up 13.5 percent), CNERGY (up 13.2 percent), PAEL (up 11.4 percent) and PSX (up 11.4 percent), while top laggards were SML (down 7.1 percent), FCEPL (down 4.5 percent), PAKT (down 4.5 percent), MEBL (down 3.5 percent) and SHFA (down 3.2 percent).
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 index closed the week at 65,794, gaining 0.6 percent WoW.
Market reacted positively to the settling of dust on the political front after Shehbaz Sharif was elected as Prime Minister for a second time by the parliament last Sunday. First directive by the incoming PM was to immediately proceed talks with the IMF regarding the EFF’s last tranche.
Pakistan’s international bonds also posted a rally on Monday on back of clarity on the political front following weeks of uncertainty after a hung election.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024