sKARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) posted smart gains in the outgoing week. Buoyed by the appreciation of the rupee and development regarding the revival of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, the KSE-100 index rose 431 points or 0.96% to settle at 43,270 points.
Encouraging financial results of corporate companies coupled with upbeat economic data and positive expectations regarding the upcoming monetary policy announcement, scheduled for August 22, fuelled bullish sentiments at the bourse.
The bulls dominated the bourse as the market’s opening bell rang this week on news flow of Saudi Arabia seeking to renew $3 billion deposits along with the provision of additional support of worth $100 million per month in terms of petroleum procurement which took the market above 43,000 level.
Furthermore, large-scale manufacturing data showed a jump of 11.7% year-on-year in the fiscal year 2021-22. Albeit, profit taking kicked in mid-week while the announcement of a potential Rs50 billion taxes to be imposed by the government also weakened market sentiment.
Moreover, the rupee once again witnessed some depreciation against the US dollar which added fuel to the concerns of the investors.
Other major developments during the week were: petrol price raised by Rs6.72 per litre, SBP reserves increased by $67 million, Pak Suzuki extended automobile plant shutdown citing inventory levels, the government planned to borrow Rs6.775 trillion from debt market in August-October, and after Toyota and Suzuki, Honda reduced car prices in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, foreign selling continued this week, clocking in at $2.78 million against a net sell of $0.88 million recorded last week. Selling was witnessed in cement ($3.37 million), and banks ($1.3 million).
On the domestic front, major buying was reported by broker proprietary trading ($7.23 million), followed by companies ($2.48 million).
During the week under review, average volumes clocked in at 519 million shares (up by 51% week-on-week), while the average value traded settled at $57 million (up by 18% week-on-week).
Major gainers and losers of the week
Sector-wise positive contributions came from banks (+164 points), cement (+123 points), technology (+94 points), power generation and distribution (+45 points), and food and personal care products (+38 points).
On the flip side, negative contributions came from exploration and production (-74 points), oil marketing companies (-29 points), and automobile assembler (-23 points).
Scrip-wise major gainers were HBL (+101 points), Lucky Cement (+85 points), Engro Corporation (+70 points), Meezan Bank (+65 points), and Systems Limited (+61 points).-Agencies














