Pakistan Stock Exchange remained under pressure during the outgoing week ended on February 23, 2018 due to selling in various sectors. BRIndex100 lost 40.92 points on week-on-week basis to close at 4,638.26 points. Average daily trading volumes stood at 159.752 million shares. BRIndex30 decreased by 399.33 points and closed at 23,947.25 points with average daily turnover of 114.568 million shares.
Pakistan's benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 359.90 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 43,267.20 points. Trading activities remained low as average daily volumes on ready counter decreased by 7.5 percent to 183.93 points as compared to previous week's average of 198.77 million shares. Average daily trading value however increased by 10.4 percent to Rs 8.12 million shares.
The foreign investors remained net sellers of shares worth $2.78 million during the week. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 64 billion to Rs 8.987 trillion.
An analyst at AKD Securities said that the political noise emanating from SC declaring Nawaz Sharif ineligible to continue as party head, along with new flows alluding Pakistan to be added on terrorist financing watch list by FAFT from June 2018, eroded investor confidence with the KSE-100 index losing 360 points, down 0.8 percent on week-on-week basis to close the current week at 43,267 points. That said, increasing oil prices (Brent: up 2.3 percent) along with higher than expected reserves size for Jhandail kept index heavy Oil and Gas sector (particularly POL) in limelight whereas clarity on Senate elections allayed concerns on postponement of General elections.
Performance leaders during the week were POL (up 10.0 percent), KAPCO (up 4.1 percent), LUCK (up 2.5 percent), FATIMA (up 1.3 percent) and EFOODS (up 1.1 percent); while laggards included PIOC (down 8.9 percent), MLCF (down 6.7 percent), FCCL (down 6.5 percent), NBP (down 4.4 percent) and KEL (down 3.6 percent).
An analyst at JS Global Capital said that ambiguity played with investors' sentiments at the bourse during the week as conflicting news emerged over FATF putting Pakistan back on the terrorist financing watch list. A federal minister, mid-week, had claimed Pakistan has been given a 3-month reprieve; however news flows that emerged on Friday during trading hours suggested of no such reprieve.
On the domestic political front as well, uncertainty hovered over the Senate elections as Supreme Court declared Nawaz Sharif ineligible to head PML-N, and resultantly making null and void all the decisions taken under his leadership after his reelection as the party chief, including the nominations filed by the PML-N for the Senate elections. However, the Election Commission later decided to treat PML-N nominees for the Senate elections as independent candidates.
Stock specific activity was witnessed, led by announcements and expectations of corporate results, where National Foods (NATF, up 13 percent) rallied on the back of expectations of a strong results for first half FY18, while Cements stocks like Pioneer Cement (PIOC, down 9 percent) and Maple Leaf (MLCF, down 7 percent) felt the heat given weak financial results. Engro Corp. (ENGRO, up 1.0 percent), Pakistan State Oil (PSO, down 3 percent) and National Bank (NBP, down 4 percent) remained volatile due to unconvincing corporate announcements. Pakistan Oilfields (POL, up 10 percent) was a clear outperformer after the release of reserves numbers by PPIS, confirming Jhandial reserves at higher-than-previously envisaged. Pak Elektron (PAEL, down 5 percent) came under pressure on Friday after World Bank announced the debarment of the company for 33 months.