Category: Stock & Commodity

KARACHI: The stock market saw a decline of 726 points on Thursday as investors’ were cautions over monetary policy statement (MPS) announcement due on March 19, 2021 and reports of tax exemption withdrawal.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 44,724 points as against previous day’s close of 45,450 points showing a decline of 726 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market came down today by 809 points during the session, after posting an initial increase of 163 points.

Increase in leverage levels during the ongoing week from Rs. 35B level (across MTS, MFS and Futures) on March 12th to Rs. 41B till yesterday reignited the issue of overleveraging at a time, when key economic decisions are pending on account of monetary policy as well as withdrawal of tax exemptions.

Selling was observed across the board, with Cement, Steel, Refinery and Tech stocks contributing to the onslaught. Among scrips, BYCO topped the volumes with 57.8 million shares, followed by KEL (49.5 million) and TRG (39.1 million).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Tech (-118 points), Banks (-112 points), E&P (-87 points), Cement (-86 points) and O&GMCs (-48 points).

Volumes increased from 510.8 million shares to 554.1 million shares (+8 percent DoD). Average traded value declined by 5 percent to reach US$ 153.3 million as against US$ 160.4 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include BYCO, KEL, TRG, HUMNL and ANL, which formed 37 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include FFC (+16 points), EPCL (+10 points), INDU (+6 points), AGP (+4 points) and NESTLE (+3 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include TRG (-101 points), ENGRO (-47 points), PSO (-35 points), PPL (-34 points) and BAHL (-33 points).

The stock market witnessed a significant surge on Wednesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 index gaining 593 points, closing at 45,450 points compared to the previous day’s close of 44,857 points.

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KARACHI: The share market gained 91 points on Tuesday amid trading in narrow range during the day.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 44,857 points as against previous day’s closing of 44,767 points, showing an increase of 91 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market traded in a narrow range after posting an increase of around 2500 points from 42,700 level in the past 2 sessions.

Leveraged positions continued causing jitters every now and then, which kept activity in tech stocks as well as food sector a bit volatile.

Cement sector stocks went up earlier in the session, however, selling pressure brought the levels down by the end of session. Besides Cement, O&GMCs, Steel and E&P sectors bore selling pressure.

Among scrips, UNITY led the table with 37.2 million shares, followed by TELE (35.6 million) and TRG (28.5 million).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Tech (+124 points), Banks (+60 points), Fertilizer (+42 points), Textile (+23 points), Cement (-54 points), O&GMCs (-28 points), Power (-28 points), and E&P (-27 points).

Volumes declined from 455.5 million shares to 408.3 million shares (-10 percent DoD). Average traded value also declined by 9 percent to reach US$ 127.5 million as against US$ 140.1 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include UNITY, TELE, TRG, GGL and PRL, which formed 34 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include TRG (+104 points), HBL (+28 points), EFERT (+21 points), MEBL (+19 points) and SYS (+15 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include HUBC (-37 points), PSO (-17 points), DGKC (-14 points), MLCF (-12 points) and OGDC (-12 points).

KARACHI: The share market gained 979 points on Monday owing to positive sentiments prevailed on stable political front.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed at 44,767 points as against last Friday’s closing 43,788 points showing an increase of 979 points.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market opened on a positive note today and added a total of 1051 points, similar to the performance witnessed on Friday.

Leveraged positions have come off lately, whereby leverage in MTS, MFS and Futures stood Rs. 45 billion on March 8^th, and by the end of the week declined to Rs. 35 billion.

The Govt’s win of Senate chairmanship also helped investors make view on index. Buying was witnessed across the board, with Cement and Steel sectors contributing the most to the Index.

Among scrips, TRG led the volumes with 24.8 million shares, followed by UNITY (23.6 million) and FCCL (21.1 million).

Sectors contributing to the performance include Cement (+170 points), Technology (+152 points), O&GMCs (+100 points), Banks (+92 points) and Power (+79 points).

Volumes increased from 442.5 million shares to 455.6 million shares (+3 percent DoD). Average traded value also increased by 2 percent to reach US$ 139.9 million as against US$ 137.5 million.

Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include TRG, UNITY, FCCL, BYCO and KEL, which formed 24 percent of total volumes.

Stocks that contributed positively to the index include TRG (+97 points), PSO (+71 points), LUCK (+58 points), SYS (+54 points) and HUBC (+47 points). Stocks that contributed negatively include ENGRO (-12 points), MCB (-5 points), PKGS (-4 points), MUREB (-4 points) and HGFA (-4 points).

KARACHI: The stock market is likely to regain due to boost in investor confidence after a major political sigh of relief for the ruling government.

Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that with the government’s candidate successfully retaining his position as Chairman Senate, we view this as a major political sigh of relief for the ruling government.

“We expect this to stimulate renewed confidence and stability in the political climate, which should help recover sentiment in the local bourse,” they said.

We do highlight that rising COVID cases, and rising oil prices are factors that could keep market performance in check.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) is currently trading at a PER of 6.7x (2021) compared to Asia Pac regional average of 17.4x and while offering DY of ~7.1 percent versus ~4.5 percent offered by the region.

Despite PM Imran Khan successfully winning a vote of confidence in the National Assembly, the domestic bourse witnessed a severe hammering throughout the week against expectations.

Concerns persisted with regards to uncertainty over the senate chairman election.

The opposition’s plans regarding “Long March” towards the end of March contributed further to the prevailing political noise.

Furthermore, Election Commission of Pakistan rejected a plea of the Government to stop the issuance of the notification for the opposition candidate’s victory in the senate elections.

Once again this was seen by the investors as a source of further instability on the political front. Besides politics, concerns over rising inflation (low-base effect), creeping up oil prices, news regarding possible withdrawal of corporate tax exemptions and resurgence in COVID-19 cases, further dented the sentiment.

Meanwhile, on the last working day, investors’ expectation of the Government candidate retaining his position as Chairman Senate helped to revive sentiments.

The market settled at 43,788 points, shedding 2,049 points (down by 4.5 percent) WoW.

This week was the worst week in terms of points as well as percentage over the last almost one year (week ending March 27, 2020 saw a decline of 2,558 points/8.34 percent WoW).

Sector-wise negative contributions came from

i) Technology & Communication (353 points),

ii) Cement (304 points),

iii) Fertilizer (224 points),

iv) Oil & Gas Exploration (169 points) and

v) Pharmaceuticals (143 points).

Whereas sectors that contributed positively include i) Insurance (22 points) and ii) Tobacco (2 points).

Scrip-wise negative contributors were TRG (278 points), LUCK (135 points), ENGRO (107 points), PPL (68 points) and SYS (67 points) while positive contributors included AICL (25 points), BAHL (21 points) and MCB (11 points).

Foreign buying this week clocking-in at USD 3.6 million compared to a net sell of USD 10.7 million last week. Buying was witnessed in Commercial Banks (USD 2.3 million) and Food and Personal Care Products (USD 0.4 million). On the domestic front, major selling was reported by Mutual Funds (USD 9.1 million) and Insurance Companies (USD 5.6 million).

Average volumes arrived at 433 million shares (up by 12 percent WoW) while average value traded settled at USD 138 million (up by 7 percent WoW).