Weekly Review: stock market may move with corona cases, political noise

Weekly Review: stock market may move with corona cases, political noise

KARACHI: The stock market is likely to move with the number of coronavirus cases reported daily and the upcoming major show of the opposition parties for next week.

The is reporting an average 3,000 COVID cases on a daily basis with around 7 percent positive out of total tests in a day. The stock market rebounded in the outgoing week. However, rising COVID cases may discourage investors’ sentiments.

Further, Pakistani Democratic Movement (PDM) – an alliance of 11 opposition parties – has announced its rally on December 13, 2020 in the wake of a ban imposed by the government on public gathering to prevent the pandemic.

The political uncertainty may also affect the investors’ sentiment.

According to the analysts at Topline Securities, the benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed up by 3.4 percent on WoW basis.

Major events during the outgoing week were:

1) SAPM giving hints at downward revision in revenue collection target of Rs4.9trn for FY21,

2) Federal cabinet approving MoUs signed between four dozen IPPs and GoP to be converted into agreements,

3) Fitch forecasting real growth for Pakistan at meagre 0.8 percent for FY21,

4) CCoE approved supply of electricity to textile sector at 7.5 cents/kWh for two months from December 1, 2020,

5) CPI for November 20 coming in at 8.3 percent YoY,

6) HUBC PA offer to the federal government to buy its Balochistan plant out for Rs65 billion,

6) SECP approval to an initiative to enable all Pakistani resident and non-resident investors to open online accounts in the capital market and

7) Decline in SBP reserves by $305 million to $13.11 billion.

During the outgoing week foreigners, companies and banks net sold equities worth $30.02 million, $7.11 million and $4.74 million respectively, whereas individuals, brokers, insurance and mutual funds on net basis purchased $20.78 million, $8.07 million, $7.79 million and $5.37 million, respectively.