Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed bullish trend during the outgoing week ended on July 27, 2018 on the back of healthy buying in almost all sectors. BRIndex100 gained 207.76 points on week-on-week basis to close at 4,649.10 points. Average daily volumes stood at 202.984 million shares.
BRIndex30 increased by 1047.19 points to close at 23,175.76 points with average daily turnover of 130.522 million shares. Pakistan''s benchmark KSE-100 index surged by 1564.70 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 42,786.45 points. Trading activities also improved as average daily volumes on ready counter increased by 7.1 percent to 234.92 million shares as compared to previous week''s average of 219.41 million shares. Average daily trading value increased by 5.8 percent to Rs 9.02 billion.
The foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $0.36 million during this week as compared to net outflow of $22.11 million in the previous week. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 214 billion to Rs 8.690 trillion. An analyst at AKD Securities said that bouncing back from a tumultuous pre-election run-up, the KSE-100 index rebounded sharply, rising for all four sessions of the shortened week, closing at 42,786pts up 3.8 percent on week-on-week basis.
Election proceedings dominated investor sentiment, guiding stock price escalations as polling formalities were completed with limited violence and sporadic occurrences of documented discrepancies. Performance leaders during the week were PIOC (up 15.1 percent), ASTL (up 15.0 percent), GWLC (up 14.1 percent), FCCL (up 12.9 percent) and EFOODS (up 11.7 percent). On the flipside, laggards were PSMC (down 3.1 percent), HASCOL (down 1.8 percent).
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that the general elections 2018 concluded with Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) emerging as the largest party on the national political landscape, in addition to securing two-thirds majority in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK). As far as equity market is concerned, KSE-100 index welcomed clarity on the national level and inched up by 3.8 percent to close at 42,786 points.
On sector-wise front, increase in steel prices towards the end of last week continued its positive spell where the Engineering sector ended 11 percent higher. Apart from that, other key performers contributing towards index performance during the week were cements (up 9.1 percent), pharmaceuticals (up 6.9 percent), fertilizers (up 3.7 percent), Oil Marketing Companies (up 4.7 percent) and refineries (up 2.2 percent).
An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that Pakistan''s general elections were held on 25th July 2018 and the caretaker setup is now set to hand over the reins to a new government. This would mark commencement of the third consecutive democratic government and hence, the benchmark KSE-100 index was swept by a 4-month high rally of 1,565 points.
Sector-wise positive contributions came from Commercial Banks (up 368 points) led by HBL and UBL, Cement (up 294 points) given expectations of robust housing scheme under PTI, Fertilizer (up 213 points) amid recent price hike of urea, Oil and Gas Exploration Companies (up 184 points) and Oil and Gas Marketing Companies (up 133 points). Scrips that traded in the green were HBL (up 138 points), LUCK (up 115 points), UBL (up 91 points), POL (up 82 points) and DAWH (up 76 points).