Despite some brief flashes of characteristic brilliance (in mid-August), the KSE-100 Index has declined by 11 percent during year-to-date (YTD) FY20, analysts said. Among the major sectors, oil and gas upstream and downstream were the worst performers, with OMCs, refineries and E&Ps providing negative returns of 23 percent, 19 percent and 18 percent, respectively.
Fertilizers (down 2 percent), engineering (down 5 percent) and textile composite (down 6 percent) fared relatively better among the major sectors, an analyst at JS Global Capital said. Looking at flows, the major sellers during the period were mutual funds, with $79.2 million of selling and insurance companies at a distant second with $9.8 million worth of selling.
This selling activity was mainly absorbed by individuals ($48.5 million), foreigners ($21.3 million) and banks/DFIs ($10.0 million). On a sector-wise basis, the largest sellers in E&Ps were foreigners ($11.1 million), insurance companies ($10.8 million) and mutual funds ($9.5 million), which was largely absorbed by Individuals ($16.8 million) and banks/DFIs ($7.7 million), analysts said.
The same story persisted in cements, where mutual funds and insurance companies were among the major sellers, whereas foreigners were the major buyers in the sector.
Fertilizers, banks/DFIs and cements constituted nearly half of the total selling activity of mutual funds. Looking at it closely, most of the funds'' selling in cements and banks was absorbed by foreigners, whereas fertilizer was largely mopped up by individual investors.
Among individuals who stood as the top buyers in the market, half of their buying was constituted in E&Ps and fertilizers, analysts added.