Hifsa Raja

The inclusion of four Pakistan Stock Exchange-listed companies in the Morgan Stanley Capital International’s (MSCI) Frontier Index is expected to attract $4 million inflows, thus ensuring the market stability, equity market analysts believe. Head of Cooperate Affairs of Pakistan Oilfields Limited, Ahsan Akbar informed WealthPK that MSCI’s FM100 Index included the company in its semi-annual review in November 2022, which doubled Pakistan's weighting to 3.03%.

“MSCI reviews the performance of companies two times a year, altering each time the inclusion, exclusion, weighting, inflow, and outflow,” he added. M Latif, Manager of KHS Securities, told WealthPK that the stock market gained 167 points during the week as a result of the inclusion of four Pakistani companies in the MSCI's Frontier Market.

He said that the purchasing momentum originated from the MSCI Semi-Annual Review for its Frontier Market FM100 Index, where the global benchmark indices provider included four companies, including Pakistan Oilfields Limited, TRG Pakistan, Systems Limited and Lucky Cement.

According to WealthPK Research, the top 10 components of MSCI Pakistan are listed in the above table. The index is made up of a total of 35 components. The entire market value of the index is $4,69 billion. The market capitalisation of MSCI Pakistan ranges from $21.37 million to $333.62 million. M Shakir, Finance Manager of Pakistan Oilfields Limited, told WealthPK that the company was currently trading at 3.4%, which was below the estimate of its fair value.

He said that the market capitalisation of Pakistan Oilfields Limited was Rs119.11 billion. He said other competitors of the company were Pakistan Petroleum, Mari Petroleum, Oil and Gas Development Company and Pakistan State Oil. “Their market capitalisations are Rs156 billion, Rs223.4 billion, Rs319.4 billion and Rs70.1 billion, respectively.”

M Shakir said that several firms that were generating enticing dividend yields of 18% to 23% might produce large gains in 2023. M Waqar, secretary of ABM Securities, said after the inclusion of Pakistan Oilfields in MSCI, the stock market started gaining points with the stocks of the tech, fertiliser and auto sectors increasing the index's value.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk