Daily Times

After six consecutive weeks in the red, the KSE-100 finally gained 225 points (0.6 percent) to close the week at 38,532 points.

This turn of events came as average daily traded value increased by 7 percent week-on-Week (WoW) to US$28 million while average daily traded volume dipped a further 10 percent WoW to 84 million shares.

A prominent development of the week was the finance ministry’s announcement that receipt of CNY15 million (equivalent to US$2.1billion) is expected from China by the 25th of March, 2019. This is in addition to China granting Pakistan access to its US$1 billion rice, sugar and yarn industries, said an equity analyst Ali H. Zaidi.

Furthermore, the ongoing accountability drive seems to have escalated political tensions as the Pakistan Peoples Party has threatened a march on Islamabad. During the week Refineries (down 2.1% WoW), Oil Marketing Companies (down 2.4% WoW) and Power Generation & Distribution (down 2.5% WoW) were among the worst performing sectors.

On the other hand, Exploration and Production (E&Ps) (up 2.9% WoW) and Banks (up 0.7% WoW) outperformed the KSE100 by 2.3 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively.

The bourse witnessed net foreign buying of US$3.1 million in Commercial Banks (US$2.9 million), Oil & Gas Exploration Companies (US$1.7 million) and Power Generation and Distribution (US$1.3 million).

Other noteworthy news over the week include (1) 300MW of Thar power beginning trial runs (2) agreement between Pakistan and ADB to implement US$6 billion loan program (3) agreements to the tune of US$900 million were signed between Malaysia and Pakistan (4) the Supreme Court’s acceptance of Bahria Town’s offer of Rs460 billion in settlement of the land in Karachi and (5) the Prime Minister’s announcement that Pakistan may soon hit an oil and gas jackpot.

Published in Daily Times, March 24^th 2019.