Equities remain under pressure

Pakistan Stock Exchange remained under pressure during the outgoing week ended on June 21, 2019 due to selling in various sectors. BRIndex100 lost 42.27 points on week-on-week basis to close at 3,692.47 points. Average daily volumes stood at 117.997 million shares. BRIndex30 decreased by 211.94 points to close at 18,846.51 points with average daily turnover of 82.553 million shares.
KSE-100 Index declined by 447.70 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 35,125.25 points. Trading activities also remained low as average daily volumes on ready counter decreased by 8.5 percent to 124.79 million shares as compared to previous week''s average of 136.37 million shares. Average daily trading value declined by 18.3 percent to Rs 4.24 billion.
The foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $5.7 million during this week as compared to an outflow of $4.8 million in the previous week. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 88 billion to Rs 7.063 trillion.
An analyst at AKD Securities said that the market performance remained choppy during the outgoing week, closing at 35,125 points, down 1.26 percent on week-on-week basis. KSE-100 Index opened the week on a weak note, as PKR continued to devalue over the weekend, taking MTD currency depreciation to 6 percent. In addition to that, Reza Baqir, SBP governor, held a press briefing on Monday to guide on economic outlook particularly about adoption of ''market determined'' exchange rate regime and, continued monetary tightening going forward. Furthermore, proposals regarding power and gas tariff hikes also surfaced during the week, further instigating market fears of continued pressure on macro indicators.
Top performers during the week included HUBC (up 5.39 percent), ASTL (up 4.20 percent), EFOODS (up 4.2 percent), POL (up 3.24 percent) and OGDC (up 2.96 percent), while HASCOL (down 10.15 percent), NCL (down 8.17 percent), KAPCO (down 8.13 percent) and FFBL (down 6.73 percent) remained the worst performers.
An analyst at JS Global Capital said after a relief rally witnessed post Federal Budget FY20 announcement last week, the KSE-100 Index took its course back to correction. Textile Composite, which remained under discussion over negative implications on account of removal of zero-rated status, closed in green with 0.6 percent gain this week. Moreover, higher international oil prices (up 8 percent) also took gains of Oil and Gas Exploration Companies to 0.7 percent this week.