August 01, 2021 (MLN): Bears dominated Pakistan equities during the departed rollover week as the benchmark KSE100 index lost 738 points to close at 47,055 level.
The emergence of the delta variant of Covid and its rampant infection rate continued to derail the investor confidence. With no relief on the infection front, the
Sindh government announced a complete lockdown in Karachi for the following week, causing the equity bourse to book further losses.
Although investors heaved a sigh of relief during mid-week with the Central Bank holding its benchmark policy rate at 7%, which translated to buying in cement and steel scrips, a report by Arif Habib highlighted.
Sector -wise, Cements (212pts), Commercial Banks (178pts), Oil and Gas Exploration Companies (58pts), Pharmaceuticals (53pts), and Oil and Gas Marketing Companies (51pts) emerged as the worst performers. Scrip-wise major losers were LUCK (118pts), TRG (62pts), MCB (60pts), PSO (45pts), and HBL (44pts). Whereas, scrip-wise major gainers were SYS (67pts), FCEPL (43pts), HUBC (38pts), ANL (34pts) and MTL (21pts).
Meanwhile, the KSE All Share Market Cap decreased by a Rs120.53billion or 1.44% over the week, being recorded at Rs 8.24 trillion as compared to a Market Cap of Rs8.36 trillion recorded last week.
Flow-wise, foreigners turned net sellers during the week with a net outflow of $5.4mn, compared to a net inflow of $21.02mn during the previous week with Foreign Corporates doing the bulk of buying amounting to a net $5.7mn.
On the local side, Banks and Other Organizations turned out to be the net buyers with $6.3mn and $2.4mn, respectively.
