Daily Times

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed some exciting and historic trading sessions during the departing week as investors treaded through a spike swoon and repeat conditions.

During the week, the index began with the 182 points gain to cross 46,000 index level owing to strong market sentiments, as investors cheered the upward revision of an estimated provisional GDP growth for the 2020/21 financial year at 3.94per cent, almost double the IMF and World Bank’s forecasts. Moreover, Federal Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin also cemented this upgrade in the projection after he predicted that the growth rate would move to six percent in the next fiscal year.

However, the excitement coupled when on Wednesday, the all share index witnessed historic volume of 1.56 billion shares for the first time ever. However,this history-making was not related to overall positive sentiments, but in fact was led by huge trading activity in the WorldCall Telecommunication Limited (WTL), which carried the lantern of gains for the investors with about 42.23percent gain, single handedly recording a volume of 707 million shares- contributing about 50 percent of the total market volume.

The next trading day, carried forward the sentiment, and turned into another history making session, after the index volume crossed the 2 billion mark, just a day after it created a new record. This historic volume, although again was

led by WTL, which single handedly recorded a volume of 950.27 million shares- contributing about 50 percent of the total market volume, but was also driven by other scrips including Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC), Lucky Cement, TRG Pakistan Indus Motors and National Bank of Pakistan, owing to an excitement that was created by MSCI rebalancing.

On the last trading day the index marked another historic day when it crossed past 47,000 index level for the first time in nearly 4 years after gaining around 335 points.

During the week, the traded volumes averaged at 1.24 billion shares, increasing by 103 percent, while the traded value improved by 30 percent to average at $178 million.

Among the scrips, Punjab Oil Mills Limited was the top performer, which gained 34.8 pc followed by Systems Limited limited which gained 11.2pc, Nishat Mills Limited gained 11.1pc, Pakistan Stock Exchange gained 10.7pc and Unity gained 9.2pc.

Among the top losers, Pakistan Tobacco Company limited posted most losses, and retreated 6.5pc followed by Adamjee Insurance Company limited which lost 5pc, Engro Polymer & Chemicals Limited lost 4.1pc, National Refinery Limited lost 3.3pc and Ghani Glass Limited lost 2.9pc.

According to the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited (NCCPL),among foreign investors’ net trade; foreign individuals offloaded $0.67 million worth of equities, foreign corporates bought $6.99 million worth of stocks and overseas Pakistanis sold $4.2 million of stocks, taking the total net purchases to to about $2.1 million worth of stocks.

Among the local investors, Individuals led the selling chart, followed by Mutual Funds and Insurance Companies, which sold off about $10.1 million, $7.4 million and $3.48 million worth of stock respectively.

However, Brokers, Other organizations and Banks led the buying chart, which mopped up about $10.8, $7.8 million and $0.96 million worth of equities.

Market participants continued to cheer MSCI Emerging Market (EM) index rebalancing in which Pakistan’s weight slightly improved to 0.02pc. Among the companies, Lucky Cement was upgraded to EM Standard Index, whereas Oil & Gas Development Company Limited was deleted from the main index. Moreover, TRG Pakistan was also added to MSCI Small Cap Index, which drove investor sentiments.

Meanwhile, the data releases through the week which kept the market flowing included, weekly SBP reserves, which increased by $87 million to $15,862 billion; the Banking deposit statistics for Apr’21, which reached Rs.17,561 billion; Foreign direct investment for the month of April, which increased by 4.9pc Month-on month to clock at 158 million and Current Account position for Apr’21, which contracted by 61pc Year-on-Year and fell to $200 million.

The market seemingly has entered a bullish momentum, hence with positive and encouraging economic indicators along with strong investors’ sentiment, the index is set to rise high, primarily on further expectations of a business friendly budget set to be announced on 11th June.