KARACHI: With the index on a hiatus for Eid break next week, we believe investors will find time to cool off and breathe a sigh of relief.
During this time, analysts at Arif Habib Limited advised market participants to reassess the index level and the recent blood bath, whereby value buying opportunities have opened up. In the immediate term, result season could dictate performance of certain scrips.
Unwarranted selling and fragile sentiments witnessed at the index this week correlated to India’s inexcusable revocation of Kashmir’s special status which, once again brought to the forefront, political rivalry between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours.
With peace in the region tested, investors felt temperatures in the domestic geo-political environment spike, translating to an overflow of negativity. The market closed at 29,429 points, shedding 2,237 points / 7.1 percent WoW.
Sector-wise negative contributions were led by i) Commercial Banks (844 points) ii) Oil & Gas Exploration Companies (529 points), iii) Power Generation & Distribution (221 points), iv) Fertilizer (182 points), and v) OMC’s (121 points). Scrip-wise negative contributions came from UBL (216 points), OGDC (195 points), HBL (187 points), PPL (176 points) and HUBC (163 points).
Foreign selling was witnessed this week clocking-in at USD 0.9mn compared to a net buy of USD 3.4 million last week. Selling was witnessed in Commercial Banks (USD 4.5 million) and Oil & Gas Marketing Companies (USD 0.2 million).
On the domestic front, major buying was reported by Individuals (USD 10.9 million) and Banks / DFIs USD 3.5 million. Average Volumes settled at 72 million shares (up by 26 percent WoW) while average value traded clocked-in at USD 19mn (up by 44 percent WoW).
