KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) likely to stay range-bound as result season begins during next week.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the market to remain range-bound to positive during next week. They attribute to beginning of result season, which will keep specific companies in limelight.
On the other hand, E&P scrips could perform well due to higher international oil prices.
However, pressure on external account, rising infection ratio of novel coronavirus in Pakistan. Further uptick in CPI in the upcoming months are downside risks to the index performance.
The benchmark KSE-100 is currently trading at a PER of 6.8x (2021). While offering a dividend yield of 6.6 per cent versus 2.4 per cent offered by the region.
This week trading activity remained dull amid a short trading week due to Eid holidays.
Meanwhile sentiment remained in check due to economic concerns. This is the back of: rising current account deficit and depreciation of PKR against green back, and expected increase in inflationary readings in upcoming months due to drastic increase in petroleum product prices and PKR/USD depreciation.
The market is pessimistic because of high COVID infection ratio. Sindh government is imposing stricter restrictions to curb the virus spread as Karachi. The infection witnessed a notable surge in its infection ratio to over 20 per cent.
The KSE-100 index closed at 47,793 points, down by 41 points or 0.1 per cent WoW. Contribution to the downside was led by: Cements (49 points); Food and Personal care (19 points); Refineries (14 points); Technology and Communication (12 points); and Textile Composite (11 points).
Scrip-wise major losers were TRG (30 points), ENGRO (25 points), PSO (14 points), LUCK (12 points), and HBL (11 points).
Foreigners offloaded stocks worth of USD 21.02 million compared to a net buy of USD 4.61 million last week. The market witnessed major selling in all other sectors (USD 21.95 million) and technology Sectors (USD 0.61 million).
The market reported buying on the local front including Individuals (USD 9.02 million) followed by Companies (USD 5.65 million).
