Weekly Market Roundup

September 06, 2024 (MLN): Pakistan stocks ended the rangebound week largely flat at 78,898, an increase of 410 points or 0.5% in both PKR and USD terms.

Investors are closely watching the upcoming monetary policy meeting on September 12, where the central bank is widely expected to ease the policy rate for the third time in a row.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has slashed interest rates by a cumulative 250 basis points in the last two meetings.

The significant slowdown in inflation, which fell to single digits after almost three years, gives policymakers additional room to continue monetary easing in a bid to spur growth.

At the same time, investors are still awaiting the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) board approval for the $7 billion loan programme signed on July 12. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has stated that his government is working to meet IMF conditions to complete the loan programme, which he hopes will be the country's last.

Throughout the week, KSE-100 traded in a range of 1,014 points, between a high of 79,254 (+766) and a low of 78,240 (-248) points.

PSX average traded volume was recorded at 675.46 million shares worth Rs14.57 billion, marking an increase of 11.8% WoW in the number of shares while a decrease of 22.4% WoW in traded value.

Meanwhile, the PSX market capitalization decreased by $33.04m or 0.1% to $37.61bn over the week. In PKR terms, market capitalization stood at Rs10.48 trillion.

Top Index Movers

Sector-wise, top positive contributors were Oil & Gas Exploration Companies (+253pts), Cement (+231pts), Power Generation & Distribution (+68pts), Automobile Assembler (+67pts), and Fertilizer (+52pts).

Contrary to that, negative contributions came from Commercial Banks (-91pts), Technology & Communication (-55pts), Chemical, (-36pts), Food & Personal Care Products (-28pts), and Oil & Gas Marketing Companies (-26pts).

The best-performing stocks during the week were MARI (+205pts), KOHC (+127pts), UBL (+106pts), OGDC (+80pts), and MCB (+62pts).

Whereas, MEBL, POL, SYS, HBL, and NBP collectively took away 378 points from the index.

FIPI/LIPI

Foreign investors were net sellers during the week, dumping $6.73m worth of equities.

Flow-wise, individuals were the dominant buyers, with a net investment of $5.66m.

They allocated the majority of their capital, $2.82m, to Oil and Gas Exploration Companies, while divesting from the All other Sectors sector, amounting to $0.9m in sales.

On the other hand, the leading sellers were Foreign Corporates, with a net sale of $6.08m.

Their most substantial sales activity was in Oil and Gas Exploration Companies, amounting to $2.98m, while they acquired $1.17m of equities in the Technology and Communication.

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