Weekly Market Roundup

March 13, 2022 (MLN): This week Pakistan’s stock market remained volatile as higher global commodity prices affected the market adversely.

The week started off on a negative note as international oil prices touched a 14-Yr high (Brent rose to USD 139/bbl) since US and EU discussed banning Russian oil imports, raising concerns over the current account position.

Moreover, the submission of a no-confidence motion against PM Khan by opposition parties in the National Assembly added to the woes of the investors. Amidst the political noise, SBP kept the policy rate unchanged at 9.75% in its monetary policy meeting, which brought bulls back into the market.

Later during the week, the international oil prices witnessed a hefty drop led by the statement from UAE’s ambassador to the USA urging OPEC to increase production, which cushioned the overall dip (adding back 810 points DoD to the index), a note by Arif Habib Limited said.

Consequently, the index settled at 43,653 level, losing 898 points or down by 2.02% WoW. In terms of USD, the index declined by 2.57% from last week.

From the sector-specific lens, commercial banks, oil & gas exploration companies, power generation companies, cement, and oil & gas marketing companies kept the index in red territory as they took away 167, 163, 143, 113, and 101 points from the index respectively.

Contrary to that, technology, automobile, chemical miscellaneous, and real estate investment trust during the week collectively added 155 points to the bourse.

Scrip-wise, HUBC, LUCK, PPL, OGDC, and PSO were the worst-performing stocks during the week as they eroded 439 points from the index, whereas SYS, NATF, THALL, MLCF, and FCCL added 218 points to the index.

Meanwhile, the KSE All Share market cap decreased by Rs208.9 billion or 2.73% over the week, being recorded at Rs7.45 trillion as compared to a market cap of Rs7.6tr recorded last week.

Flow-wise, foreigners were the net sellers during the week, offloading stocks worth $3.13mn compared to a net sale of $0.96mn last week, largely backed by foreign corporations amounting to $5.7mn. Major selling was witnessed in banks ($4.4mn) and textiles ($0.4mn).

On the local side, the majority of the buying was reported by companies, and organizations amounting to $5.4mn and $3.7mn, respectively. However, mutual funds stood on the other side with net selling of $7mn.

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