KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange remained range-bound during the outgoing week ended April 16, as the investors remained cautious to take fresh positions.

BRIndex100 gained 15.75 points on week-on-week basis to close at 4,871.69 points. Average daily trading volumes stood at 344.674 million shares.

BRIndex30 inched up by 10.79 points to close at 25,688.27 points with average daily turnover of 185.159 million shares.

KSE-100 index increased by 119.15 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 45,305.63 points. Trading activities remained low as average daily volumes on ready counter decreased by 10.3 percent to 368.01 million shares as compared to previous week’s average of 410.09 million shares. Average daily trading value declined by 18.2 percent to Rs 15.24 billion.

The foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $993,790 during this week. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 22 billion to Rs 7.904 trillion.

An analyst at AKD Securities said that the KSE-100 closed the week at 45,306 points, flattish, however amid a 10 percent decline in average daily turnover on the onset of Ramzan in second trading session.

Announcement of board meetings indicating upcoming board meetings reinvigorated the market sentiment to some extent. The week also included some key economic data releases where LSM growth of 4.85 percent in February 2021 marked a slowdown in the industrial output which had hitherto been showing a double digit growth in the preceding months. Remittances however, touched $2.7 billion, up 20 percent on month-on-month basis. Moreover, Eurobond inflows in the week ending on 9th April’21 pushed forex reserves to $23 billion at a three year high. On the other hand, government officials discussion on stringent IMF targets, specifically increase in electricity tariff in FY21 did cast uncertainty after encouraging US$ flows over previous weeks.

Stock wise, top performers include ATRL (up 7.8 percent), SHEL (up 6.8 percent), SNGP (up 5.6 percent), PSMC (up 5.4 percent) and PTC (up 5.0 percent) whereas laggards were PMPK (down 4.8 percent), PSX (down 4.3 percent), HASCOL (down 4.3 percent), LOTCHEM (down 3.5 percent) and SHFA (down 3.5 percent).

An analyst at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 index closed the range-bound week on a flat note, gaining merely 119 points.

In light of the rising Coronavirus infections and fatalities in Pakistan, the government has announced strict SOPs for the holy month of Ramadan. In the political landscape, the government has banned the TLP under the Anti-terrorism Act and has moved the Supreme Court for dissolution of the party.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021

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