Weekly Market Roundup

March 22, 2025 (MLN):  IMF optimism, positive signals regarding the government's commitment to tackling circular debt, and expectations of further inflation decline encouraged buyers to capitalize on the opportunity this week.

As a result, the benchmark KSE-100 index gained 2,906.01 points, up by 2.52% to close at 118,442.17 compared to the previous week’s close of 115,536.16.

A day before the week’s close, the index touched a historic all-time high of 119,421.81.

Intraday swings were significant, with the index reaching a high of 119,421.81 (+979.64 points) and a low of 115883.22 (-2,558.95 points).

Market cap

The KSE-100 market capitalization stood at Rs3.57 trillion, up 1.65% from the previous week’s Rs3.51tr. In USD terms, the market cap was recorded at $12.74 billion, compared to $12.53bn in the prior week.

This week, the index return in USD terms increased to 2.49% compared to 0.9% in the previous week.

On the economic front, the current account posted a deficit of $12 million in February 2025. Last month, the country recorded a current account deficit of $399m.

Pakistan recorded a Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of $94.7m in February 2025, compared to $172m in the Same Period Last Year (SPLY).

Pak Rupee's Real Effective Exchange Rate Index (REER) decreased by 1.71% in February 2025 to a provisional value of 102.27 from 104.06 in January 2025.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) conducted an auction on Wednesday in which it sold Market Treasury Bills (MTBs) worth Rs392.17bn against the target of Rs800bn while the maturity amount was Rs513bn.

In addition, the Central Bank also sold 2, 5 and 10 years semiannual bonds for Rs762.33bn against a target of Rs425bn.

The foreign exchange reserves held by the SBP increased by $48.9m or 0.44% WoW to $11.15bn during the week ended on March 14, 2025.

The positive economic cues helped stabilize investor sentiment, pushing the KSE-100 index’s fiscal year-to-date returns to 50.98%. However, on CYTD return stood at 2.87%.

Top Index Movers

During the week, Oil & Gas Exploration Companies, Technology & Communication, Power Generation & Distribution and Oil & Gas Marketing Companies contributed 1,086.15, 415.84, 272.95 and 223.24 points to the index. On the flip side, Fertilizer lost -104.50 points.

Among individual stocks, MARI added 695.57 points to the index while SYS, HUBC, and OGDC contributed to the index by 327.82, 251.02, and 186.49, respectively.

Conversely, EFERT, UBL, and FATIMA eroded -123.89, -60.22, and -28.69 points, respectively.

FIPI/LIPI

This week, Foreign Investors remained net sellers, offloading the equities worth $7.95m.

Among them, Foreign Corporates led the selling activity worth $5.6m while Overseas Pakistanis sold securities worth $2.32m.

On the other hand, this week, local Investors were net buyers, purchasing equities worth $7.95m.

Banks/DFI bought securities worth $176.4m whereas Mutual Funds sold securities worth $155.61m.

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