Pakistan Stock Exchange remained under pressure during the outgoing week ended January 24, 2020 due to selling in various sectors. BRIndex100 lost 54.5 points on week-on-week basis to close at 4,485.47 points. Average daily trading volumes stood at 166.744 million shares. BRIndex30 decreased by 462.47 points to close at 23,515.05 points with average daily turnover of 119.829 million shares.

KSE-100 declined by 534.74 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 42,433.02 points. Trading activities remained low as average daily volumes on ready counter decreased by 24.0 percent to 186.66 million shares as compared to previous week's average of 245.67 million shares. Average daily trading value however improved by 5.6 percent to Rs 7.93 billion. Total market capitalization declined by Rs 126 billion to stand at Rs 7.959 trillion.

An analyst at AKD Securities said that the market remained under pressure on expectations of inflation likely crossing 13 percent mark in January 2020 putting on hold expectations of interest rate cut in MPS meeting and potential gas price hikes where authorities' decision to reduce GIDC added to the uncertainty particularly in the Fertilizer sector. Investors also remained on the sidelines due to lack of triggers while awaiting for the outcome of FATF joint group meeting in Beijing.

Sector wise, Cable and Electrical Goods (down 4.4 percent) and OMCs (down 3.8 percent) witnessed major declines where the latter came under pressure due to below expected result of APL possibly on inventory loss. This was followed by Fertilizers (down 3.4 percent), Engineering (down 2.7 percent) and Autos (down 2.0 percent).

Within AKD universe top performers were NML (up 5.2 percent), CHCC (up 4.1 percent), FFC (up 3.5 percent), PIOC (up 2.84 percent) and FFBL (up 2.4 percent) while laggards were HASCOL (down 11.9 percent), APL (down 10.1 percent), HMB (down 8.31 percent), EFERT (down 8.0 percent) and ENGRO (down 6.1 percent).

An analyst at JS Global Capital said that the KSE-100 saw another lacklustre week as it closed at 42,633 levels, down 1.2 percent on week-on-week basis.

This range-bound performance may be attributed to lack of potent positive triggers. During the week, foreign investors exhibited net buying of $4.8 million with a particular interest in OMCs and Fertilizers.