KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange remained under severe pressure during the outgoing week ended March 12, due to panic selling on investors concerns over political uncertainty and increasing Covid-19 cases in the country.
BRIndex-100 decreased by 303.04 points on week-on-week basis to close at 4,650.61 points. Average daily trading volumes stood at 401.580 million shares.
BRIndex-30 declined by 2,197.96 points to close at 23,507.62 points with average daily turnover of 278.825 million shares.
KSE-100 index plunged by 2,049.27 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 43,788.08 points. Trading activities slightly improved as average daily volumes on ready counter increased by 12.1 percent to 432.82 million shares as compared to previous week’s average of 386.00 million shares. Average daily trading value increased by 6.5 percent to Rs 21.72 billion.
The foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $3.64 million during the week together with Individuals (net buy of $5.94 million) and Banks (net buy of $4.28 million) while major selling was witnessed from Mutual Funds (net sell of $9.05 million) accompanied by Insurance (net sell of $5.63 million) and Companies (net sell of $1.28 million). Total market capitalization declined by Rs 400 billion during this week to Rs 7.792 trillion.
An analyst at AKD Securities said that political uncertainty cast a major spell on the stock market as KSE-100 shed 3,058 points in first four trading sessions however recovering by 1,008 points during last trading day of the week. KSE- 100 closed the week at 43,788 points down 4.47 percent on week-on-week basis.
Apart from political uncertainty, additional pressure was imparted on the index by concerns on rising inflation while spike in Covid-19 cases also caused jitters after NCOC implemented additional measures and delayed the relaxations which were expected to come into effect from March 15, 2021. Refinery sector led the decline, decreasing by 14.3 percent during the week while technology sector posted a decline of 12.7 percent.
Top performers for the week were AICL (up 9.5 percent), SFL (up 3.7 percent), MUREB (up 3.3 percent), PAKT (up 1.7 percent) and UBL (up 0.7 percent) whereas laggards were MTL (down 19.6 percent), ATRL (down 19.0 percent), GATI (down 18.5 percent), TRG (down 17.7 percent) and ANL (down 17.4 percent).
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that bears were clearly in control as they robbed the KSE-100 of 2,049 points over the week. Late day’s recovery, though impressive, proved insufficient to undo the damage and the index closed the week at 43,788 level.
Major selling came in from Mutual Funds and Insurance Companies. However the election of the Senate Chairman also kept the political scenario heated and investors anxious. Another area for concern was the alarming number of Coronavirus infections which have led the government to rethink its strategy of allowing further leeway in SOPs.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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