LAHORE: Despite rough trading sessions from Monday to Wednesday, the market managed to record gains after six weeks of decline. Pakistan’s Benchmark KSE 100 index bounced back gaining 2 per cent or 782 points week on week basis to close at the 39470 mark.
Some dust settled on the political front where Delimitation Bill was passed paving way for timely elections in 2018, civil-military tensions eased as after a 6 year period Army Chief appeared in the senate where he answered critical questions including the denial of Army’s role in Faizabad religious parties’ protest. Further, PML-N de-facto boss Nawaz Sharif tapped his younger brother as Prime Minister candidate for next elections. A string of bullish 2018 strategy reports also played their part in improving the outlook.
Stocks including UBL (+11 per cent WoW), HBL (+7 per cent), OGDC (+3 per cent), LUCK (+4 per cent) and ENGRO (+3 per cent) added 533 points, while POL (-4 per cent), HUBC (-3 per cent), PPL (-2 per cent), NESTLE (-5 per cent) and MARI (-3 per cent) held 170 points from the index.
On the sector front; banks and engineering were up 5 per cent, food was down -3 per cent, autos lost -1 per cent and refinery -1 per cent.
Foreigners sold $ 5.4 million during the week compared to selling of $ 8.9 million last week. On the local front, Individual were net buyers of $ 2 million worth of shares whereas banks were net sellers of $ 4.5 million.
Meanwhile, the outgoing week has brought good news throughout the week. Fitch Ratings has maintained Pakistan’s credit rating at ‘B’ with a stable outlook. The credit rating agency said Pakistan is unlikely to face external financing difficulties in short-term due to recent raising of $ 2.5 billion.
Pakistani businessmen have been lobbying to better mutual trade ties with the US to help Pakistan with its negative trade deficit, however, US President Donald Trump’s has now “put Pakistan on notice”, which may further dent the bilateral trade relations.
Also during this week, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi approved the appointment of PML-N lawmaker Rana Afzal as state minister for finance. The minister from Faisalabad is currently the parliamentary secretary for finance.
Moreover, Pakistan Stock Exchange introduced ‘Category B’ that will include companies eligible for margin trading system and deliverable futures, National Clearing Co of Pakistan CEO Muhammad Lukman said.
