KARACHI: In the upcoming week, the market may remain jittery due to political strains, as PTI has given six days to the Government to announce elections, analysts at Arif Habib Limited said.
However, it appears that the government’s removal of the subsidy on fuel and electricity will gain IMF approval.
Once the package comes through, other sources of FX should also open up, which will be a positive for the market.
READ MORE: Bulls dominate Pakistan stocks on POL price increase
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) is currently trading at a PER of 4.3x (2022) compared to Asia Pac regional average of 12.3x while offering a dividend yield of 9.2 per cent versus 2.7 per cent offered by the region.
In the outgoing week the market opened on a negative note, due to uncertainty over the outcome of the IMF program and the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting where the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) decided to hike the policy rate by 150 basis points.
Consequently, this put pressure on the rupee which hit an all-time low of PKR 202/USD.
READ MORE: Stocks end up 529 points as political tensions ease
On the political front tensions were high as PTI marched toward the capital, adding more pressure to the market.
However, things turned for the better when the ex-PM Imran Khan decided to come back after 6 days.
Investor confidence was revived towards the end of the week when the government decided to hike petroleum prices by PKR 30/liter, paving the way for the resumption of the IMF program and other avenues of foreign funding. In other news, Saudi Arabia is in the final stages of extending the USD 3 billion deposit to Pakistan, and ADB is set to fund projects worth USD 2 billion.
READ MORE: Stocks witness bearish trend on rising political noise
The market closed in red at 42,861 points, shedding 239 points (down by 0.6 per cent) WoW.
Sector-wise negative contributions came from i) Fertilizer (132 points), ii) Commercial Banks (76 points), iii) Cement (56 points), iv) Oil & Gas Exploration Companies (41 points), and v) Power Generation & Distribution (29 points).
Whereas, sectors which contributed positively were i) Technology & Communication (66 points), ii) Refinery (40 points), iii) Automobile Assembler (32 points), iv) Oil & Gas Marketing Companies (15 points), and v) Food & Personal Care Products (14 points).
Scrip-wise negative contributors were FFC (63 points), EFERT (57 points), LUCK (48 points), HUBC (39 points) and OGDC (30 points). Meanwhile, scrip-wise positive contribution came from TRG (64 points), MTL (34 points), HBL (30 points), AVN (23 points) and CNERGY (19 points).
Foreign selling was witnessed this week, clocking in at USD 1.5 million compared to a net sell of USD 6.1 million last week. Major selling was witnessed in Cement (USD 1.8 million) and Banks (USD 1.4 million).
READ MORE: Pakistan stocks shed 490 points on political uncertainty
On the local front, buying was reported by individuals (USD 11.0 million) followed by Brokers Proprietary Trading (USD 2.9 million). Average volumes clocked in at 281 million shares (up by 27 per cent WoW) while average value traded settled at USD 39 million (up by 26 per cent WoW).
