Surging coronavirus cases across the country amid looming fear of complete lockdown may hit investors’ confidence hard at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) during this week. According to analysts at Arif Habib Limited, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has advised stricter restrictions and shorter work hours, adding a complete lockdown on a national level has been ruled out. This will be a sigh of relief for the business community, though the third wave of the novel coronavirus remains a key risk for the market. The analysts said that the strong result season appears to be a solid indicator of the economic and corporate recovery. The benchmark KSE-100 of Pakistan Stock Exchange is currently trading at a PER of 6.7x (2021) compared to Asia Pacific regional average of 16.1x while offering a dividend yield of ~7.2 percent versus ~2.6 percent offered by the region. The benchmark KSE-100 index remained under pressure last week due to heavy selling on investors’ concerns over rising Covid-19 cases, catalysing the fear of strict curb imposed in high disease prevailing cities. Over the week, the market saw four bearish and one bullish sessions. The KSE-100 Index shed 599 points (-1.32 percent) to close at 44,706 points last week.