Weekly Market Roundup

August 23, 2024 (MLN): Pakistan stocks rebounded this week, driven by optimism for a third consecutive rate cut next month and increased clarity on the International Monetary Fund's board approval.

The benchmark KSE-100 Index gained 756 points or 1.0% in both PKR and USD terms to wrap up the week at 78,801.

The government slashed the yields on T-Bills by 74 to 148 basis points across all tenors, strengthening expectations of further rate cuts.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Wednesday said that Pakistan is making good progress with the IMF and hopes to get board approval in September for a new $7 billion loan program.

Throughout the week, KSE-100 traded in a range of 1,714 points, between a high of 79,174 (+1,129) and a low of 77,460 (-585) points.

PSX average traded volume was recorded at 578.34 million shares worth Rs15.58 billion, an increase of 4.6% WoW in the number of shares while a significant decrease of 25.3% WoW in traded value.

Meanwhile, the PSX market capitalization increased by $413.55m or 1.1% to $37.74bn over the week. In PKR terms, market capitalization stood at Rs10.51 trillion.

Top Index Movers

Sector-wise, top positive contributors were Commercial Banks (+398pts), Pharmaceuticals (+190pts), Fertilizer (+174pts), Leather & Tanneries (+92pts), and Cement (+55pts).

Contrary to that, negative contributions came from Automobile Assembler (-65pts), Inv. Banks / Inv. Cos. / Securities Cos. (-47pts), Technology & Communication, (-28pts), Miscellaneous (-28pts), and Oil & Gas Exploration Companies (-27pts).

The best-performing stocks during the week were FFC (+237pts), UBL (+189pts), NBP (+137pts), SRVI (+92pts), and OGDC (+77pts).

Whereas, MARI, ENGRO, MTL, HUBC, and HBL collectively took away 375 points from the index.

FIPI/LIPI

Foreign investors turned to net sellers during the week, dumping $0.62m worth of equities.

Flow-wise, Mutual funds were the dominant buyers, with a net investment of $3.50m.

They allocated the majority of their capital, $2.26m, to All other Sectors, while divesting from the Technology and Communication sector, amounting to $0.21m in sales.

On the other hand, the leading sellers were Insurance Companies, offloading $6.28m.

Their most substantial sales activity was in All other Sectors, amounting to $6.12m, while they acquired $1.21m of equities in the Commercial Banks.

To note, the KSE-100 is up 16,350 points or 26.18% so far this.

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