KSE-100 index sheds 2,210 points during outgoing week
The KSE-100 index shed a further 5 percent or 2,210 points in the outgoing week.
KARACHI (Dunya News) - Uncertain political outlook and concerns over economy/currency continued to take its toll on the market as the benchmark KSE-100 index closed five percent during the outgoing week.
The KSE-100 index shed a further 5 percent or 2,210 points in the outgoing week to close at 2017 to date low of 43,078 points. From its peak level seen on May 24, 2017, index has been decreased by 19 percent as political and economic concerns weigh on investors sentiments.
At the end of the week, KSE-100 index has cumulatively lost 2,932 points since the start of the month. During the outgoing week, mutual funds and foreign investors remained the largest net sellers of 24 million dollars and 2 million dollars, respectively.
According to an analyst, mutual Funds were keen to rebalance their portfolios to adjust for seemingly tumultuous political and economic climate. On the other side, however, banks and individuals looked to take advantage of weak asset prices in hopes of capturing benefits of relentless selling. In this backdrop of overall uncertainty, participation dried in the market with overall volumes declining by 3.4 percent on weekly basis to 183 million shares per day and traded value remained thin at 94 million dollars per day, same analyst said.
Index heavy weight sectors including Commercial Banks and E&Ps were down 4 percent and 3 percent respectively. Cements and Fertilizer sectors also fell by 7 percent & 5 percent respectively. Risk of demand slowdown & concerns of price war put pressure on cement stocks On the other hand, fertilizer sector remained under pressure due to weak demand and excess inventory levels.
(Story by Haris Zamir)
