KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange shone out in 2023, as the benchmark KSE-100 Index provided a gain of 55 percent in Pak Rupee term (24 percent in USD) in the calendar year 2023. This gain is inclusive of dividends received during this period.
This gain of 55 percent is seen after 13 years, following a 60 percent increase in the index in 2009, analysts said.
“The KSE-100 Index is a tale of two halves, with the index up 4.0 percent in the first half of 2023 and 51 percent in the second half of 2023,” a research report of Topline Securities said.
In the second half of 2023, better than expected IMF Stand By Agreement (SBA), followed by the successful completion of the first IMF review, a stable currency, and the announcement of elections, helped improve investor sentiments, the report said.
This sudden recovery in prices has been accompanied with significant improvement in trading activity with trading volumes (ready/cash) per day at PSX up 41 percent to 323 million shares per day in 2023 which was highest since 2021, it added.
Similarly, average traded value per day was up 45 percent to Rs 10 billion per day in cash market which was also highest since 2021. In futures market, total traded volume and value per day were also up by 17 percent and 24 percent to 110 million share pr day and Rs 4.5 billion per day, respectively.
According to some reports, Pakistan’s KSE-100 Index was amongst 3rd best performing market in local return in 2023. However, in USD terms, it did not rank among the top 10.
In the second half of 2023, the PSX was the best-performing market, gaining 51 percent in PKR and 54 percent in USD.
The KSE-100 Index also outperformed other asset classes in 2023 including 1-year USD Naya Pakistan Certificate (up 33 percent), US Dollar (up 24 percent), T-Bills (up 23 percent), and Gold (up 21 percent). Property indices posted returns in the range of 6-29 percent in 2023.
Pakistan market (PSX) saw just one IPO in 2023, with a meagre Rs 435 million of funds raised. This is the lowest amount raised in a year in the past decade and half of the previous record low of Rs 800 million seen in 2013. Macro-economic instability, coupled with the looming threat of default, cheap valuations and political uncertainty discouraged equity investment in 2023, the report said.
Foreign corporate turned net buyers in 2023 with net buying of $ 73 million after 03 years and highest inflows after 08 years. To highlight, in last 3 years (2020-2022), foreign corporates have sold shares worth of $ 1.1 billion.
Companies and individuals were also net buyers in 2023 where companies bought shares worth $ 128 million while individuals bought worth $ 27 million.
However Local Mutual Funds and Banks trimmed their position in 2023 with net selling of $ 132 million and $ 61 million respectively.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
Comments
Comments are closed.