KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange Monday opened bearish and lost 41,000 level after shedding 269 points to reach 40837 points level in early trading.
Last week, the investor sentiment readings continued to worsen as KSE-100 index plummeted again to close at 41,105 points (down 2.3 percent WoW). As a result, liquidity dried up as average traded volume and value declined by 27 percent WoW (134m vis-a-vis 185m in the last week) and 24 percent WoW ($66m recorded during the week). As for flows, mutual funds remained the major net sellers of $11 million worth of equities during the week whereas individuals jumped to the other side to buy at bargain prices. Almost all major sectors such as cements (down 4 percent WoW on uncertain pricing scenario), oil & gas exploration companies (down 3 percent WoW), banks (down 3 percent WoW) etc witnessed a decline.
Stocks including ENGRO (-6 percent WoW), PAEL (-18 percent WoW), OGDC (-3 percent WoW), HBL (-2 percent WoW) and DGKC (-8 percent), eroded 373 points from the index. On the other hand, DAWH (+5 percent WoW), PAKT (+7 percent WoW), FFC (+2 percent WoW), POL (+1 percent WoW) and SNGPL (+2 percent WoW) added 126 points to the index.
Amongst major sectors, tobacco and pharmaceutical sectors surged by 5 percent and 3 percent, respectively. In contrast, refinery, cement & commercial banks were down 6 percent, 4 percent and 3 percent, respectively. During the outgoing week Mutual Funds sold $11.3 million worth of equities while individuals bought $16.3 million worth of stocks. Foreigners were net sellers of $5.3 million during the week vs net selling of $7.4 million during last week. Foreigners sold $3.8 million and $2.0 million worth of stocks in fertiliser and E&P sectors respectively whereas $1.8 million and $1.4 million of shares were bought in cement and banking sectors.
