- Index at 2017 lowest, sheds 5.4pc week-on-week
by Muzhira Amin
After a volatile performance throughout the week, the benchmark KSE-100 share index shed another 584.17 points to end at 46835.17 points, at the close of market on Friday.
The market fell by 10pc in the first week of June, followed by another fall of 5.42pc this week.
In the outgoing week, KSE-100 index slumped 2,668 points to close at the lowest level seen in 2017. Today, the market slipped below the two recent lows: 1) Intraday low of 47,099pts posted on 13th June (Relief rally post PM’s JIT Summons’ Panic); 2) Closing low of 46,874pts on April 18 (When Panama verdict date was announced by Supreme Court).
In hindsight, this confirms Profit’s earlier view that the relief rallies witnessed early this week and early last week were indeed dead cat bounces, as the index has fallen well below those levels and may test 2017’s lowest intraday level of 46,048pts seen on April 19, a day before the Panama verdict was to be announced. Average volumes were up 7pc WoW, whereas traded value was down 8%, likely due to bloated activity in right shares.
During the week, pressure emanated from political upheaval and oil hitting a low, while Friday forex reserves were reported at US$20.15 billion – hitting their lowest point in 19 months (Nov’15: US$19.8bn).
On the sector front, oil took a major hit as exploration and production and oil marketing companies shed 10.5pc and 9.2pc, respectively; sentiment towards 3pc WoW decline in international crude prices was likely amplified by domestic politics and Gulf turbulence. Fertiliser declined 6.3pc, cements shed 5pc while banking sector’s market capitalisation contracted by 3.2pc during the week.
“Crude oil prices fell in the international market on Wednesday. The effect of this downwards trend in these prices did not show up on Thursday, but today’s performance is a consequence of that fall,” Adnan Sami, research analyst at Topline Securities told Profit.
KSE-100 was down by 1.28pc. The market opened at 47,442.73 points after yesterday’s (Thursday) impulsive session, the market experienced a quick fall and came down to end at 46,835.17 Friday.
Commercial banks, power generation and distribution and technology and communication were the major sectors which contributed to the market’s fall. Index heavyweights Bank Al-Habib, Habib Bank and United Bank fell down by 2.89%, 2.74% and 1.48% respectively.
The biggest contributor to the index performance was the oil and gas exploration sector; it was indeed pummeled and its two standard-bearers PPL and OGDC crashed by 3.9% and 3.39% respectively.
Alongside oil and exploration companies, oil marketing companies too were down and saw a sharp decline with companies like Shell Pakistan, Sui Northern Gas and PSO going down by 2.99pc, 3.25pc and 1.3pc, respectively.
On the flip side, Exide Pak, Wyeth Pak Ltd and Murree Brewery witnessed an upwards shift by 2.3pc, 0.99pc and 1.62pc, respectively.
According to Topline Securities, the major thing that brought down the market was oil prices, which contributed 126 points to the overall decline. Accompanying them was Habib Bank, which slashed a further 97 points to the downturn of the benchmark KSE-100 index — both HBL and OGDC part of MSCI’s emerging index. Also, because of the weekend, the expectations of the investors were low, which reflected in the market.
Total 320 stocks were traded; as many as 103 saw appreciation in their prices while prices of 195 stocks depreciated and those of 22 stocks remained unchanged. The overall trade volume declined to 129 million shares on Thursday, compared to Thursday’s tally of 355 million.
