KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed bullish trend and closed at highest ever level during the outgoing week ended on April 26, 2024 on the back of healthy buying by both local and foreign investors coupled with institutional support.
The benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 1,832.84 points on week-on-week basis and closed at its highest ever level of 72,742.74 points.
Trading activities also improved as average daily volumes on ready counter increased by 32.0 percent to 650.04 million shares during this week as compared to previous week’s average of 492.38 million shares while average daily traded value on the ready counter increased by 22.2 percent to Rs 26.07 billion during this week against previous week’s Rs 21.33 billion.
BRIndex100 soared by 231.92 points during this week to close at 7,626.10 points with average daily turnover of 591.924 million shares.
BRIndex30 increased by 693.15 points on week-on-week basis to close at 24,814.09 points with average daily trading volumes of 421.810 million shares.
The foreign investors also remained net buyers of shares worth $3.013 million during this week. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 184 billion during this week to Rs 10.017 trillion.
An analyst at AKD Securities said that the market maintained its bullish momentum and despite some profit-takings, challenged its previous highs and closed the week at its highest ever closing at 72,742points, marking a weekly gain of 1,833points/2.58 percent.
Overall, the positive momentum was largely driven by anticipation of investments from KSA, the successful visit of Iran’s President, and inclusion of Pakistan in the IMF’s executive board agenda. Additionally, on the macroeconomic front, trends remains encouraging as well. Firstly, current account balance for March 2024 clocked in at a surplus of $619million, taking nine months of FY24 total CAD to $508million, down by 87 percent YoY. Moreover, foreign direct investment in March 2024 witnessed an increase of 89 percent MoM, reaching $258million.
Sector-wise, Fertilizers, Synthetic & Rayon, ETFs were amongst the top performers, up 7.0 percent/6.5 percent/6.2 percent WoW respectively. On the other hand, Tobacco, Miscellaneous, and Refinery were amongst the worst performers with a decline of 12.9 percent/5.2 percent/3.8 percent WoW.
Flow wise, major net selling was recorded by Insurance Companies with a net sell of $13.1million. On the other hand, Mutual Funds absorbed most of the selling with a net buy of $6.0million.
Company-wise, top performers during the week were FATIMA (up 23.1 percent), DGKC (up 12.6 percent), AVN (up 11.4 percent), EFERT (up 11.2 percent) and FFBL (up 10.4 percent), while top laggards were FHAM (down 53.0 percent), PAKT (down 13.0 percent), PSEL (down 7.9 percent), BIPL (down 7.7 percent) and NRL (down 6.7 percent).
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 index reached an all-time high closing of 72,742 this week, taking WoW gains to 3 percent.
Fertilizer sector stocks remained the top performers this week. The week started with Iranian President Raisi’s visit to Pakistan. The two countries agreed to increase the volume of bilateral trade to $10billion in the next five years following the signing of multiple agreements and MoUs for cooperation in different areas.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024