PSX witnesses positive trend

20 Mar, 2023

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed positive trend on the start of the outgoing week as investors were anticipating developments on IMF programme. However, the momentum was disturbed due to noise on the political front and the market closed in negative on week-on-week basis.

The benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 463.92 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 41,329.95 points.

Trading activities however slightly improved as average daily volumes on ready counter increased by 6.6 percent to 223.02 million shares as compared to previous week’s average of 209.27 million shares while average daily traded value on ready counter increased by 23.6 percent to Rs 8.19 billion against previous week’s Rs 6.63 billion.

BRIndex100 lost 15.14 points during this week to close at 4,178.56 points with average daily turnover of 183.352 million shares.

BRIndex30 closed at 15,073.12 points, up 61.45 points with average daily trading volumes of 120.599 million shares.

The foreign investors’ selling continued during this week, clocking in at $5.0 million compared to a net sell of $2.9million last week. Major selling was witnessed in Commercial Banks ($2.5million) and Technology and Communication ($2.4 million). On the local front, buying was reported by Companies ($15.8 million) followed by Individuals ($1.0 million).

Total market capitalization declined by Rs 64 billion during this week to Rs 6.319 trillion.

“After a stable start to the week, the KSE-100 index closed in negative territory as delay in IMF continued to prolong, hinged upon formal assurances from friendly countries”, an analyst at JS Global Capital said.

The market closed at 41,330 points, down 1.1 percent on WoW where sector wise E&Ps were among top performers while banking and food sectors were key under performers.

An analyst at Arif Habib Limited said that the stock market started out positively, as investors were anticipating developments on IMF program. However, the momentum was disturbed due to noise on the political front.

Sector-wise negative contributions came from miscellaneous (down 197 points), Technology (down 155 points), Fertilizer (down 78 points), banks (down 4 3 points) and food & personal care (down 32 points). Whereas, the sectors which contributed positively were cement (up 49 points), glass & ceramics (up 25 points) and insurance (up 16 points).

Scrip-wise negative contributors were PSEL (down 196 points), SYS (down 133points), POL (down 79 points), ENGRO (down 54 points) and BAHL (down 50points). Meanwhile, scrip-wise positive contribution came from OGDC (up 48 points), DGKC (up 22 points), TGL (up 13 points), SEARL (up 13 points) and MLCF (up 12 points).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023

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