KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) is likely to maintain positive momentum gained on Friday last in the coming sessions this week due to a boost to investors’ confidence after the government managed to crush political instability through its victory in the Senate election for the slots of chairman and deputy chairman.
However, the rising Covid-19 cases as well as oil prices are factors that could keep market performance in check.
One of the other positive points for the PSX this week is that the benchmark KSE-100 Index shed 2.049.27 points last week due to political instability, as the market opened at 45,837.35 points on Monday last and closed at 43,788.08 points on Friday last.
This huge difference of over 2,000 points is despite the fact that the PSX turned bullish on Friday last with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 1,008.32 points. So, there seems to be enough for the investors to turn back to the bourse.
Again, rupee stability has been witnessed for the last few weeks and the rupee has gained Rs1.94 against the US dollar since February 19. The US dollar was closed at Rs157.14 on Friday last.
Likewise, the foreign exchange reserves held by the country increased by $24.4 million (+0.12 per cent) to $20.16 billion by the week ended March 05, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday.
Similarly, the foreign remittances continued exceptional performance in the month of February 2021, reaching $2.26 billion, showing a growth of 24.2 per cent as compared to remittances in February 2020, the SBP announced last week.
The banking sector, which is the largest sector in terms of market capitalisation in the PSX, will be in the limelight this week as the closing period for a dividend payment of many banks will occur this week.
The benchmark KSE-100 index of the PSX is currently trading at a PER of 6.7x (2021) compared to the Asia Pacific regional average of 17.4x and while offering DY of 7.1 per cent versus 4.5 per cent offered by the region.
