LAHORE: A report released by Arif Habib Limited (AHL) Research has said the KSE-100 index posted a 7.8% year-on-year (YoY) increase in profit during nine months of the calendar year 2018.
According to the report, this growth in profitability was fueled by the fertilizer sector (+90%), oil and gas exploration (+27%), chemicals (+19%) and power generation and distribution (+14%).
The profitability of the KSE-100 index was stressed by the banking stocks (-10%), oil and gas marketing companies (-9%), cement (-8%), automobile assemblers (-11%).
Also, amongst low-weighted sectors, noteworthy performance included textile spinning (+169%), leasing (+89%), Insurance (+35%), paper and board (-27%) and food (-16%).
And profitability in the third quarter of 2018 rose meagerly by 0.8% YoY, however it fell by 4.7% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ).
The YoY rise in profit was fueled by growth in E&P (+39%), fertilizer sectors (+53%), whilst on a QoQ basis, the fall in profitability was attributable to lower profits in the banking sector (-21%) and cement sector (-47%).
As per the analysis of AHL Research, the sectors leading the profitability chart for nine months of 2018 were synthetic & rayon (+1,056% YoY), textile spinning (+169% YoY) and fertilizer (+90% YoY).
For the 3rd quarter of 2018, the sectors that led the profitability chart were synthetic (+633% YoY), textile spinning (+317% YoY) and technology (+284% YoY).
Moreover, the report said the KSE-100 index declined by 912 points (-2.2%) during the third quarter of 2018 majorly because of food (-193 points), automobile assemblers (-179 points), oil and gas marketing companies (-155 points).
However, during the aforementioned period, fertilizer companies added 107 points to the KSE-100 index.
Also, during the nine months of the calendar year 2018, the KSE-100 index accelerated by 521 points (+1.3%) with the bull run being led by fertilizers (+926 points), banks (+712 points) and E&P (+366 points).
Contrarily, cement (-360 points) and automobile assemblers (-341 points) contributed negatively to the KSE-100 index during the aforementioned period.
