KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed bullish trend and hit historic highest ever levels during the outgoing week ended on October 04, 2024 on the back local investor interest coupled with institutional support.
The benchmark KSE-100 surged by 2,239.83 points on week-on-week basis and crossed 83,000 psychological level for the first time in history to close at highest ever level of 83,531.96 points.
Trading activities however remained low as average daily volumes on ready counter declined by 12.1 percent to 343.89 million shares during this week as compared to previous week’s average of 391.07 million shares while average daily traded value on the ready counter declined by 1.3 percent to Rs 16.72 billion during this week against previous week’s Rs 16.94 billion.
BRIndex100 soared by 283.69 points during this week to close at 8,824.85 points with average daily turnover of 275.003 million shares.
BRIndex30 increased by 1,084.81 points on week-on-week basis to close at 26,769.10 points with average daily trading volumes of 158.197 million shares.
The foreign investors however remained on the selling side and withdrew $26.059 million from the local equity market. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 226 billion during this week to Rs 10.879 trillion.
An analyst at AKD Securities said that the market continued its bullish momentum throughout the week, with expectation of declining interest rate cut and IMF’s EFF approval being the catalyst, leading the benchmark KSE-100 index gaining 2,240points or 2.76 percent WoW, closing at 83,532points on Friday.
Overall, the bullish sentiment was predominantly driven by high-dividend-yielding sectors including Fertilizers and E&P’s, as falling fixed-income yields led to a rerating of these sectors.
CPI dropped down 6.93 percent YoY in September 2024, lowest since Jan 2021. Additionally, in the auction held on October 2nd, the yields for the 6-month and 12-month T-Bills decreased by 334 and 326bps, respectively, compared to previously accepted auction.
Sector-wise, Textile Spinning, Leather & Tanneries, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies, Fertilizer and Tobacco were amongst the top performers, up 10.8 percent/6.7 percent/5.8 percent/5.2 percent/4.8 percent WoW. On the other hand, modarbas, vanaspati & allied industries, close-end mutual funds, woollen& inv. banks/ inv. cos/ securities cos. were amongst the worst performers with a decline of 8.0 percent/4.4 percent/4.2 percent/3.9 percent/3.7 percent WoW, respectively.
Flow wise, major net selling was recorded by Foreigners with a net sell of $26.1million. On the other hand, Mutual Funds absorbed most of the selling with a net buy of $26.1million.
Company-wise, top performers during the week were AIRLINK (up 13.2 percent), NCPL (up 11.6 percent), PKGP (up 10.5 percent), PPL (up 10.2 percent) and FFC (up 10.1 percent), while top laggards were TRG (down 12.9 percent), FHAM (down 11.6 percent), INIL (down 9.9 percent), EPCL (down 7.8 percent) and EFUG (down 7.0 percent).
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 index continued its bullish momentum throughout the week, posting a significant growth of 2.8 percent WoW, closing in at 83,532 level.
Despite the significant foreign outflows of $26million during the week, the index remained elevated driven by off-setting local buying mainly led by Mutual Funds amid positive economic developments.
Pakistan’s ongoing sharp disinflation trend continue with an almost 4-year low CPI reading in September-2024. CPI tumbled to 6.9 percent in September-2024 (lowest since Jan 2021). Also, as per the latest figures, SBP reserves increased to $10.7billion, being at 29-month high levels after the disbursement of IMF’s first tranche of 37- month Extended Fund Facility.
In the recent T-Bill auction, the Government raised Rs244billion against the target of Rs250billion, where the yields for 6M and 12M tenor bills settled at 14.398 percent and 13.735 percent, respectively being the lowest since April-2022.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024