Weekly Review: Investors to eye PTI protest call

Weekly Review: Investors to eye PTI protest call

KARACHI: The investors of Pakistan stocks likely to decide strategy during the next week on the basis of expected protest call by Pakistan Tehreek I Insaaf (PTI).

Senior PTI leader Asad Qaiser reportedly said that PTI Chairman Imran Khan likely to call for countrywide protest and long march during a week.

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However, analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that market likely remain range bound as results season was almost over.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) is currently trading at a PER of 4.2x (2023) compared to Asia Pac regional average of 12.1x while offering a dividend yield of 9.8 per cent versus 2.9 per cent offered by the region.

The week commenced on a positive note as market was up 531.1 points on Monday following the release of SPI number on the last working day, which was 8.8 per cent down WoW.

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Moreover, market also reacted positively on the news of change in Finance Ministry high-ups. Furthermore, Pakistani Rupee (PKR) appreciated against the green back, closing at 228.45 (up by PKR 11 | 4.9 per cent WoW).

Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER) clocked-in at 94.5 as of August 2022 compared to 93.2 in July 2022.

Further, an amount of USD 2 billion was committed by Asian Development Bank (ADB) which is expected to mobilize by the end of this year.

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On the flip, the market sentiment become negative towards the end of the week as the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reserves declined by 4 per cent WoW clocking-in at USD 8 billion.

In addition, yields on government’s international bonds maturing in 2022 and 2024, increased during the week by 20-24pps WoW.

Moreover, with HBL coming under international scrutiny, market sentiment was further dented. Albeit, the market closed 41,129 points, gaining 508 points (up by 1.25 per cent).

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Sector-wise positive contributions came from i) Power Generation & Distribution (141 points), ii) Cement (107 points), iii) Technology & Communication (92 points), iv) Oil & Gas Exploration (65 points) and v) Fertilizer (40 points).

Whereas, sectors which contributed negatively were i) Commercial Banks (217 points), and Close-End Mutual Fund (1 points). Scrip-wise positive contributors were HUBC (139 points), TRG (122 points), PPL (55 points), LUCK (49 points) and OGDC (40 points).

Meanwhile, scrip-wise negative contribution came from HBL (213 points), MEBL (34 points), MARI (32 points), SYS (28 points) and BAHL (12 points).

Foreigners buying continued during this week, clocking in at USD 0.15 million compared to a net buy of USD 5.09 million last week. Major buying was witnessed in Technology (USD 2.5 million), Cement (USD 0.2 million), Power Generation & Distribution (USD 0.2 million) and Food & Personal Care Products (USD 0.1 million). On the local front, selling was reported by Mutual Funds (USD 7.6 million) followed by Insurance Companies (USD 3.9 million).

Average volumes clocked in at 200 million shares (up by 20 per cent WoW) while average value traded settled at USD 36 million (up by 39 per cent WoW).