KARACHI: The upcoming monetary policy decision scheduled for August 22, 2022 likely to dictate the stock market during the next week.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that key events to look out for include the monetary policy meeting which is scheduled to convene in the next week and is likely to dictate the direction of the market.
READ MORE: Weekly Review: stock market likely to move in positive zone
The analysts believe the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) may keep policy rate unchanged at 15 per cent.
Keeping in view the ongoing result season, some sectors and scrips are expected to stay in the limelight. Furthermore, stability in the Pak Rupee against greenback will keep the sentiment upbeat.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) is currently trading at a PER of 4.4x (2022) compared to Asia Pacific regional average of 12.5x while offering a dividend yield of 8.8 per cent versus 2.8 per cent offered by the region.
READ MORE: Weekly Review: market likely to continue positive sentiments
Bulls dominated at the market’s opening bell rang this week on news flow of Saudi Arabia seeking to renew $3 billion deposits along with provision of additional support of worth $100 million per month in terms of petroleum procurement which took the market above 43,000 level.
Furthermore, data of Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) show a jump of 11.7 per cent on year on year basis in fiscal year 2021/2022.
Albeit, profit taking kicked in mid-week while announcement of a potential PKR 50bn taxes to be imposed by the government also weakened market sentiment.
READ MORE: Pakistan stocks up 671 points on continuous rupee gain
Moreover, the Pak Rupee once again witnessed some depreciation against the USD.
The market closed in the green zone at 43,270 points, up by +413 points or 0.96 per cent WoW.
Sector-wise positive contributions came from i) Banks (164 points), ii) Cement (123 points), iii) Technology (94 points), iv) Power Generation and Distribution (45 points) and v) Food and Personal Care Products (38 points).
Whereas, sectors which contributed negatively were i) E&Ps (74 points), ii) OMCs(29 points) and iii) Automobile Assembler (23 points). Scrip-wise positive contributors were HBL (101 points), LUCK (85 points), ENGRO (70 points), MEBL (65 points) and SYS (61 points).
READ MORE: Pakistan stocks gain 357 points as rupee continues recovery
Meanwhile, scrip-wise negative contribution came from PPL (45 points), OGDC (44 points), FFC (42 points), PSEL (38 points) and UBL (29 points).
Foreigners selling continued this week, clocking in at USD 2.78 million compared to a net sell of USD 0.88 million last week. Major selling was witnessed in Cement (USD 3.37 million) and Banks (USD 1.30 million).
On the local front, buying was reported by Broker Proprietary Trading (USD 7.23 million) followed by Companies (USD 2.48 million). Average volumes clocked in at 519 million shares (up by 51 per cent WoW) while average value traded settled at USD 57 million (up by 18 per cent WoW).
