Daily Times

Karachi: An exciting day comes to an end with the benchmark KSE100 index managing a green close after wild swings as Supreme Court announced the much-awaited verdict on Panama Case and disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, ending one of the phases of uncertainty.

KSE-100 opened down around 900 points as the previous night’ the SC notified that verdict would be announced on Friday, after the verdict was heard the market slumped 3.8% around 1700 points at the lowest. Subsequently, opportunists swooped in and bought aggressively, absorbing the selling and paring day’s losses to eventually close the market green by 6 points with $200 million traded, analysts at Topline Securities commented. Following the decision, Nawaz Sharif announced stepping down and dissolved the federal cabinet, the benchmark KSE 100 Index’s first print in morning session was 3.6% down or around 1700 points and after noon session was 1.6% down or around 750 points, analysts at Elixir Securities said, adding value buying in afternoon session, primarily led in early surge by Locals, helped wider market to completely recover from the knee-jerk dip post verdict announcement. On leader board, Hub Power emerged as the top gainner as investors in a bid to hedge from possible Pak Rupee depreciation in future built fresh positions in the stock while notable Oil plays also received most attention during recovery due to their dollar-linked revenues. Individuals ($23.8 million) were the largest domestic buyers during out going week, while Foreigners sold $13.2 million during the week against selling $2 million last week; selling was concentrated in Cement (US$7.3mn) & Banks (US$3.9mn); buying in Fertilizer ($3.4 million).

Analysts say that over the next few days, the situation will become clearer. Most likely the ruling party, PML-N, will appoint one of its members as new PM. investors will closely track developments on domestic politics with reaction from ruling party PML-N providing more clarity. Value buyers are expected to come out and mainly to support the market next week.

Published in Daily Times, July 29^th , 2017.