KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange remained under pressure and closed in red zone during the outgoing week ended on September 27, 2024 as the investors opted to offload their holdings on available margins.
The benchmark KSE-100 index plunged by 782.32 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 81,292.13 points.
Trading activities remained low as average daily volumes on ready counter decreased by 16.7 percent to 391.07 million shares during this week as compared to previous week’s average of 469.45 million shares while average daily traded value on the ready counter declined by 8.0 percent to Rs 16.94 billion during this week against previous week’s Rs 18.40 billion.
BRIndex100 decreased by 74.16 points during this week to close at 8,541.16 points with average daily turnover of 307.116 million shares.
BRIndex30 declined by 1,215.58 points on week-on-week basis to close at 25,684.29 points with average daily trading volumes of 189.903 million shares.
The foreign investors remained on the selling side and withdrew $12.443 million from local equity market during this week. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 70 billion during this week to stand at Rs 10.653 trillion.
An analyst at AKD Securities said that the market remained volatile throughout the week, with the benchmark KSE-100 index losing 782points or 0.95 percent WoW, closing at 81,292points on Friday.
Though, anticipation of the IMF’s board approval scheduled for Sep 25th, briefly lifted investor sentiment on Wednesday. However, the positive sentiment was overshadowed by continuation of foreign selling after rebalancing of FTSE Russell, political noise, and concerns regarding the potential termination of certain IPPs contracts, inducing selling pressure in power sector heavyweights. Consequently, Power Gen & Distribution Sector contributed the significant decline, eroding 800points from the index during the week.
Sector-wise, transport, fertilizer, inv. banks/ inv. cos/ securities cos., leather & tanneries and pharmaceuticals were amongst the top performers, up 7.3 percent/4.2 percent/4.8 percent/2.9 percent/2.0 percent WoW. On the other hand, Power generation & distribution, leasing companies, textile spinning, engineering & jute were amongst the worst performers with a decline of 11.4 percent/6.7 percent/5.1 percent/4.6 percent/4.0 percent WoW.
Flow wise, major net selling was recorded by Foreigners with a net sell of $12.44 million. On the other hand, mutual funds absorbed most of the selling with a net buy of $16.21 million.
Company-wise, top performers during the week were FFC (up 10.2 percent), GLAXO (up 10.1 percent), AKBL (up 9.7 percent), FFBL (up 9.2 percent) and THALL (up 6.3 percent), while top laggards were HUBC (down 13.5 percent), PGLC (down 12.2 percent), SML (down 9.7 percent), MARI (down 9.4 percent) and KEL (down 8.3 percent).
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that after reaching an all-time intraday high of 82,906, the KSE-100 lost momentum, ending the week with a WoW decline of 782 points.
FTSE outflows continued during the week with foreign selling during the week coming in at $12.5million.
This week marked a significant milestone as Pakistan’s $7.0 billion extended fund facility was approved by the IMF executive board.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met with IMF managing director (MD) where she commended the reforms undertaken by the government. On the back of the IMF news, Pakistan received significant financing assurances from China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE that go beyond the required $12billion rollovers in FY25. Additionally ADB also stated that the IMF-backed reform agenda will accelerate Pakistan’s economic growth to 2.8 percent in FY25.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024