KARACHI: The stock market likely turn green after facing five consecutive red sessions owing to expected healthy financial results to be announced during the next week.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market to turn positive in the coming week given healthy earnings expectations in the ongoing result season.
They also highlighted that the Pak Rupee had appreciated against the USD to PKR 158.82 in the outgoing week.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) is currently trading at a PER of 7.4x (2021) compared to Asia Pac regional average of 17.7x and while offering DY of 6.5 percent versus 2.5 percent offered by the region.
The market commenced on a negative note as investors resorted to profit taking. Despite finalization of agreement between IPPs and the Government, sentiment in Power sector remained lackluster.
While as international oil prices crossed USD 60/bbl during mid-week, brief interest was witnessed in the E&P sector.
Albeit this was short-lived as oil prices corrected slightly by week end, and market participants sidelined from the E&P stocks.
Pertinently, this week the market witnessed its highest ever single day volume of 1,125 million shares. With that said, the market closed red on all five days, closing at 45,808 points, down by 1,098 points / 2.4 percent WoW.
Sector-wise negative contributions came from i) Commercial Banks (448 points), ii) Fertilizer (267 points), iii) Oil & Gas Exploration Companies (175 points) and iv) Power Generation & Distribution (113 points). Whereas sectors that contributed positively include i) Cements (318 points), Technology & Communication (16 points) and Refinery (16 points).
Scrip-wise negative contributors were UBL (105 points), HBL (100 points), and ENGRO (99 points) while positive contributors included LUCK (144 points), DGKC (63 points), and KOHC (36 points).
Foreign selling continued this week clocking-in at USD 3.2 million compared to a net sell of USD 2.7 million last week. Selling was witnessed in Commercial Banks (USD 4.3 million) and E&P (USD 0.4 million). On the domestic front, major buying was reported by Individuals (USD 12.7 million and Companies (USD 8.4 million).
Average volumes arrived at 734 million shares (up by 32 percent WoW) while average value traded settled at USD 169 million (down by 1.5 percent WoW).
