KARACHI: Pakistan stocks likely to stay range-bound during the next week as investors may remain cautious due to political and economic uncertainties.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that the equity bourse is expected to remain range bound in the upcoming week as market participants will remain cautious due to the political noise in the country.
Furthermore, any positive news coming from Saudi Arabia and IMF 9th review.
READ MORE: Pakistan stocks inch up in range-bound trading
The benchmark KSE-100 index is currently trading at a PER of 4.0x (2023) compared to Asia Pac regional average of 12.9x while offering a dividend yield of 10.2 per cent versus 2.8 per cent offered by the region.
In the outgoing week, the market remained jittery, even though Pakistan repaid its $1 billion international bond on time and Saudi Arabia extended its $ 3 billion deposit to the SBP.
The Market remained under pressure this week mainly due to uncertainty over the IMF deal and political noise. However, the market turned positive midweek as Russia agreed to sell Oil to Pakistan at a discounted price, but this positive momentum did not sustain.
READ MORE: Stocks shed 167 points in range-bound session
Furthermore, SBP’s foreign exchange reserves data showcased a decline of $ 784 million hitting nearly a four-year low of $ 6.72 billion.
With this, the Pakistani Rupee (PKR) depreciated during the week against the greenback, dropping by PKR 0.71 | 0.32 per cent WoW to settle at PKR 224.40.
The market closed at 42,150 points, down by 452 points (-1.1 per cent WoW).
Sector-wise negative contributions came from i) Cement (109 points), ii) Power Generation & Distribution (61 points), iii) Pharmaceuticals (60 points), iv) Technology & Communication (57 points) and v) Automobile Assembler (45 points).
READ MORE: Pakistan stocks trade in green after clarification on IMF review
Whereas, sectors which contributed positively were i) Miscellaneous (131 points) and ii) Automobile Parts & Accessories (3 points). Scrip-wise negative contributors were HBL (55 points), SYS (54 points), HUBC (50 points), MEBL (43 points) and MTL (36 points).
Meanwhile, scrip-wise positive contribution came from PSEL (137 points), BAHL (33 points), UBL (27 points), BAFL (12 points) and HMB (11 points).
READ MORE: Pakistan stocks continue with bearish trend
Foreigners selling was witnessed during this week, clocking in at $ 6.3 million compared to a net buy of $ 6.6 million last week. Major selling was witnessed in Commercial Bank ($ 10.3 million), Cement ($ 0.2 million), and all other Sectors ($ 0.5 million).
On the local front, buying was reported by Individuals ($ 8.8 million) followed by Insurance Companies ($ 1.3 million). Average volumes clocked in at 180 million shares (up by 11 per cent WoW) while average value traded settled at $ 18 million (down by 22 per cent WoW).
