LAHORE: The day ended on a range bound note despite a robust open as listless trading dominated market sentiment, closing the week on a dull note. Markets in the region were mixed once again after a tepid performance from US indices overnight. As turbulence returns to global markets, stocks look set to post biggest weekly drop since late 2016 as US bond yields rise.
Meanwhile, during the outgoing week, the general drift was lower largely as foreign inflows remain absent, with banks (mainly UBL, HBL and MCB) and cements (LUCK, MLCF and DGKC) becoming the epicentre of profit-taking following their extraordinary run-up in the month of January. Despite a range bound performance, investors remained optimistic in consumer staples (+ 1.18 per cent), energy (+0.93 per cent) and consumer discretionary (+0.75 per cent). Within these sectors, NESTLE (+4.11 per cent), COLG (+4.44 per cent), MUREB (+5 per cent), OGDC (+1.17 per cent), PPL (+0.99 per cent), POL (+0.93 per cent), PSO (+0.66 per cent), THALL (+2.56 per cent), KTML (+1.32 per cent) and HCAR (+1.23 per cent) contributed towards staging a buoyant close.
Volume and turnover for the KSE 100 index stood in sharp divergence as volume jumped up 31.79 per cent on day on day basis while turnover remained flattish rising only 4.2 per cent perhaps as investor focus remain skewed towards 2nd and 3rd tier names mostly.
For the outgoing week, the KSE 100 index lost 249.93 points, staging its first closing in red on weekly basis after 06 weeks with a major drag coming from UBL (-6.40 per cent), LUCK (-3.91 per cent), HBL (-2.19 per cent), MCB (-3.11 per cent) and OGDC (-1.98 per cent) taking away 376 points while DAWH (+5.07 per cent), BAHL (+3.77 per cent) and MARI (+4.20 per cent) added 110 points.
Market participation for the KSE 100 index shot up to 93.17million shares (+31.7 per cent on day on day basis. The major contribution to total market volume came from LOTCHEM (+3.78 per cent), DCL (+4.62 per cent) and POWER (+2.46 per cent) churning 86.12 million shares out of the All Share volume of 284 million shares. Daily traded value for the KSE 100 index remained flat at $ 61.81 million from $ 59.31 million in the previous session (+4.2 per cent on day on day basis); DCL ($ 5.1 million), ISL ($ 4.6 million) and ATRL ($ 4.6 million) were among top contributors from traded value perspective.
Meanwhile, major contribution to the KSE 100 index upside came from OGDC (+1.17 per cent), NESTLE (+4.11 per cent), PPL (+0.99 per cent), TRG (+4.99 per cent) and MCB (+0.85 per cent) adding 101 points.
On the flip side, HUBC (-2.68 per cent), PAKT (-3.44 per cent) and HBL (-0.49 per cent) took away 71 points. The KSE 100 index is 17 per cent above its 52-week low of 37,736.73 reached on December 12 and 17 per cent below its 52-week high of 53,127.24 touched on May 25.
Technically speaking, the KSE 100 index closed the week on a bearish and indecisive note. However, for now, immediate resistance is 44,855 (weekly high), while it is expected that Wednesday’s low (43,996) to provide next support.
