LAHORE: The ongoing political instability further fueled by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s controversial comments coupled with looming macro headwinds dampened investor sentiments with the benchmark KSE 100 closing at 41,624 points (-4.52 per cent WoW), highest weekly loss of 2018 amidst depleting foreign reserves and rising political noise ahead of general election 2018. The market settled with a loss of 246.13 points on Friday.
Despite all of the negative news flow during the outgoing week, seemingly a brutal week for investors has finally come to an end with a staggering loss of 1,971.27 points (-4.52 per cent) during the outgoing week, with supply-side pressure coming from LUCK (-10.23 per cent), HBL (-4.47 per cent) and ENGRO (-6.47 per cent).
Moreover, the KSE 100 index has accumulated a cumulative loss of 5,520.6 points (-11.71 per cent) since April 6, 2018 (from intraday high of 47,144.12). Well rooted in correction territory now, the KSE 100 index has staged this retreat amid concerns on the economy, politics, foreign selling and reduced trading hours due to Ramzan.
Investors’ remained sidelined during the week where market participation in terms of value on Thursday touched 46-months low. Traded value during the week went down by 22 per cent, while trading volume showed a decline of 31 per cent.
For a change volume and turnover for the KSE 100 index staged a comeback (+65.8 per cent and 79.7 per cent on DoD basis) thanks to investor interest in materials (28.7 per cent of total turnover), energy (22.2 per cent of total turnover) and utilities (19.9 per cent of total turnover) driven by attractive valuations.
Bulk of Friday’s participation was seen in DGKC (8 per cent of total turnover), EPCL (5.1 per cent of total turnover), PSO (6.6 per cent of total turnover), APL (4.4 per cent of total turnover), SNGP (7.7 per cent of total turnover) and SSGC (6.1 per cent of total turnover). PAEL (5.5 per cent of total turnover) among industrials also stood out like a sore thumb.
Taking its inspiration from the previous session the market slowly slipped into red as market bears pushed the KSE 100 index deeper into correction territory. Major drag to the KSE 100 index came from consumer staples (-1.83 per cent), industrials (-1.75 per cent) and materials (-1.24 per cent) amid heavy losses in NESTLE (-5 per cent), TRG (-3.35 per cent), PAEL (-3.76 per cent), LUCK (-2.26 per cent), FFC (-1.88 per cent), DAWH (-2.17 per cent) and FCCL (-2.49 per cent).
Additional pressure came from select names in health care (-1.19 per cent) and energy (-0.76 per cent) thanks to SEARL (-1.49 per cent), SHFA (-4.45 per cent), PSO (-2.5 per cent), PPL (-1.08 per cent) and POL (-1.23 per cent).
Market participation for the KSE 100 index increased to 55.39 million shares (+65.8 per cent on DoD basis). Major contribution to total market volume came from KEL (-1.80 per cent), SSGC (+2.28 per cent) and PAEL (-3.76 per cent) churning 16.6 million shares out of the All Share volume of 82.84 million shares.
Daily traded value for the KSE 100 index increased to $32.84 million from $18.28 million in the previous session (+79.7 per cent on d/d basis); MCB ($4.01 million), DGKC ($2.31 million) and SNGP ($2.24 million) were among top contributors from traded value perspective.
Major contribution to the KSE 100 index downside came from LUCK (-2.26 per cent), FFC (-1.88 per cent), PSO (-2.50 per cent), PPL (-1.08 per cent) and POL (-1.23 per cent) taking away 122 points. On the flip side, MCB (+1.01 per cent), KTML (+3.98 per cent) and UBL (+0.64 per cent) added 38 points. The KSE 100 index is 10 per cent above its 52-week low of 37,736.73 reached on December 12, 2017 and 22 per cent below its 52-week high of 53,127.24 touched on May 25, 2017.
Foreign selling in Commercial banks kept the whole sector under pressure during the week and eroded 346 points from the index. Among scrips, HBL lost 4.5 per cent, UBL lost 5 per cent and MCB lost 1 per cent during the week.
Foreigners were net sellers during the week amounting to $20 million against net selling of $4.1 million last week. On the other hand, amongst local investors, mutual funds were net sellers of $16.8 million whereas banks were net buyer of $20.2 million.
Through a filing at the local bourse, EPCL has disclosed its intention to offer 37 per cent Right shares at Rs22 in a bid to partially fund various expansion projects. Similarly, MARI has also informed through a filing at the bourse regarding the allocation of 75 MMCFD gas from Mari Gas Field to PakArab Fertilizer Limited.
