KARACHI: The stock market likely to take sigh of relief after vote of no-confidence against the prime minister, scheduled for April 3, 2022.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that political noise is expected to be pushed back after the vote of no-confidence against Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday.
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Moreover, with Ukraine-Russia peace talks in progress, commodity prices are expected to further decline.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) is currently trading at a PER of 4.9x (2022) compared to Asia Pacific regional average of 12.3x while offering a dividend yield of 8.4 per cent versus 2.5 per cent offered by the region.
The market witnessed an eventful week as both, the incumbent government and opposition tried to gather allies amid vote of no-confidence motion against PM Khan in the National Assembly.
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“We believe the market has largely digested the aforementioned which, coupled with decline in international oil and coal prices (which garnered interest in the cement sector) brought back the bulls, as concerns over inflation have ceded,” they said.
Although some shuffling in support by minority parties in the mid-week added pressure, the market closed at 45,152 points, witnessing a noteworthy jump of 1,601 points (up by 3.7 per cent) WoW. To highlight, this is the highest weekly return of the local bourse since July 31, 2020.
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Sector-wise positive contributions came from i) Cement (266 points), ii) Commercial Banks (241 points), iii) Technology & Communication (182 points), iv) Fertilizer (152 points), and v) Power Generation and Distribution (111 points).
Whereas, sectors which contributed negatively were i) Leather & Tanneries (9 points) and ii) Leasing Companies (1 points). Scrip-wise positive contributors were SYS (129 points), LUCK (129 points), MTL (69 points), HUBC (68 points) and ENGRO (57 points). Meanwhile, scrip-wise negative contribution came from COLG (16 points), SRVI (9 points) and EFERT (6 points).
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Foreign selling continued this week, clocking-in at USD 15.55 million compared to a net sell of USD 4.12 million last week. Major selling was witnessed in Commercial Banks (USD 13.7 million) and Fertilizer (USD 0.6 million).
On the local front, buying was reported by Banks/DFI’s (USD 15.7 million) followed by Individuals (USD 7.5 million). Average volumes clocked-in at 310 million shares (up by 116 per cent WoW) while average value traded settled at USD 44 million (up by 72 per cent WoW).
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