Pakistan Stock Exchange closed week on negative note
The benchmark KSE-100 went down by 225 points or 0.55 percent to close 40887 points.
KARACHI (Haris Zamir) - The capital market closed on a negative zone, ending continuous five weeks of rising trend as profit taking sets because of lack of any big development which could trigger some rally where corporate results also depressed the overall tone.
Preceding week commenced on a positive note and the market gained over 502 points on Monday as China came to Pakistan’s rescue and agreed to provide a loan of $2.5 billion to support depleting foreign exchange reserves. Whereas other news flows regarding GIDC settlement and issuance of directives by SBP for overseas investors to invest in Pakistan Banao Certificate also fueled investor’s sentiment. However, downgrading of Pakistan’s long term credit rating from B to B- by S&P coupled with pressure on international oil prices dented investors sentiments.
The benchmark KSE-100 went down by 225 points or 0.55 percent to close 40887 points.
Contribution to the downside was led by Commercial Banks down 185 points due to selling from mutual funds and insurance companies, Oil and Gas Exploration Companies down 83 points due to decline in international oil price. While, sectors that contributed positively to the index were Cement up by 106 points amid correction in international coal price by 4 percent week on week to $86/ton and Automobile Assembler up by 28 points.
Foreign buying continued clocking-in at $12.2 million compared to a net buy of $12.3 million last week. On the local front, selling was reported by Mutual funds $22.6 million followed by other organizations $1.1 million. That said, average daily volumes for the outgoing week were up by 10 percent to 192 million shares likewise value traded jumped by 26 percent to 62 million.
An analyst from Arif Habib expect the market to remain range bound given no material event expected in upcoming week, however, visit of Saudi crown prince expected on 16th Feb’19 may uncover investment for construction of an oil refinery in Pakistan and other ventures.
In addition, the Prime Minister of Pakistan is visiting UAE on 10th Feb’19 to attend World Government Summit where he will encourage foreigners to invest in different sectors in Pakistan.
While an analyst from BMA Capital Management said that the upcoming week Prime Minister Imran Khan is expected to visit Dubai to address at the Dubai’s World Government Summit 2019, while the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is expected to visit Pakistan next week.
Moreover, the supplementary mini-budget is expected to be approved in the upcoming week. Among key data points, automobile sales data is also due to be reported in the coming week.
