KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed positive trend during the outgoing week ended on March 19, due to fresh buying by both local and foreign investors.
BRIndex-100 gained 184.48 points on week-on-week basis to close at 4,835.09 points. Average daily trading volumes stood at 454.800 million shares.
BRIndex-30 increased by 1,452.92 points to close at 24,960.54 points with average daily turnover of 318.354 million shares.
KSE-100 index surged by 1,113.23 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 44,901.31 points. Trading activities also improved as average daily volumes on ready counter increased by 11.5 percent to 482.62 million shares as compared to previous week’s average of 432.82 million shares. Average daily trading value increased by 3.4 percent to Rs 22.45 billion.
The foreign investors also remained net buyers of shares worth $3.035 million. Total market capitalization increased by Rs 155 billion to Rs 7.947 trillion.
An analyst at AKD Securities said the market started on a strong note on the Senate election results announced on the last trading session of the previous week, rallying 2.23 percent on the first trading session. The KSE-100 in the following trading sessions remained volatile, where bullish sentiment from political victory of incumbent government was given a tough face-off by corporate income tax ex-emption withdrawals and potential inflationary pressures from electricity rate hikes - both necessary to unlock third tranche of IMF’s EFF facility (payment to be approved in coming week).
Amid the aforementioned factors, double digit inflation expected in March 2021 brought interest rate upcycle fears to the surface.
Sector wise, new refinery policy in the offing en-tailing import parity based pricing and 10 percent duty protection on MS and HSD led to a rally in refinery sector (up 16.8 percent).
Top performers for the week were BYCO (up 28.5 percent), ANL (up 18.1 percent), TRG (up 17.5 percent), ATRL (up 15.9 percent) and UNITY (up 13.0 percent) whereas laggards were AKBL (down 14.7 percent), HMM (down 13.5 percent), STJT (down 11.6 percent), HMB (down 7.5 percent) and ABL (down 7.0 percent).
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that bulls regained control of the market as the KSE-100 closed with weekly gains of 1,113 points at 44,901 level. Internationally, oil prices came under pressure on short-term demand concerns and tensions between US and Russia.
The surging Covid-19 cases have resulted in the imposition of micro smart lockdowns in some localities while the government has warned of stricter measures if the spread is not contained.
In a bid to revive the IMF program the government is also considering retracting a number of tax waivers granted to the corporate sector. Furthermore, the Power division has also withdrawn its summary seeking non-payment of dues to IPPs.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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