KARACHI: The stock market likely to remain range bound in the upcoming week amid lack of triggers.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that with the State Bank of Pakistan raising the key discount rate by 50 bps, leveraged sectors such as cements, steel, fertilizers, OMCs and textiles may come under pressure while banks could support the index. The market commenced on a negative note this week, shedding 403 points on Monday. Expectations of a rate hike and potential pressure on leveraged sectors kept the market dull.
However, IMF team’s visit to Pakistan and news flow regarding consensus on economic policies later in the week created a positive momentum.
Moreover, USD 2.2 billion loan from China took the weekly reserves to USD 17 billion. With this, the KSE-100 Index gained 117points (up by 0.3 percent WoW) closing at 38,649 points.
Positive sector-wise contributions came from i) Oil & Gas Marketing Companies (+76 points), ii) Fertilizer (+41 points), iii) Automobile Assembler (+36 points), iv) Pharmaceuticals (+25 points) and v) Engineering. On the flip side, sectors that contributed negatively include i) Power Generation & Distribution (-52 points), ii) Food & Personal Care Products (-23 points) and Insurance (-23 points).
Scrip-wise major positive contributions came from SNGP (+38 points), MTL (+30 points), BAHL (+30 points), ENGRO (+24 points), and UBL (+24 points).
Scri points that contributed negatively includes HBL (-64 points), HUBC (-54 points) and NESTLE (-29 points).
Foreign buying continued this week clocking-in at USD 0.5 million compared to a net buy of USD 3.1 million last week. Buying was witnessed in Commercial Banks (USD 2.6 million) and Exploration & Production (USD 1.1 million).
On the domestic front, major selling was reported by Individuals (USD 5.4 million) and Companies (USD 5.0 million). Volumes settled at 128 million shares (up 53 percent WoW) while value traded clocked in at USD 31 million (up 10 percent WoW).
Other major news: i) Gwadar terminal developer plans IPO for $85 million project, ii) SNGPL, SSGCL seek hefty tariff hike from next fiscal year, iii Descon, CGGC awarded Mohmand Dam Project, iv) Govt to raise Rs2 per unit on power tariff to collect Rs200 billion, and v) Pakistan weighs LNG imports from Saudi, Malaysia.
