The latest loan agreement agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) triggered brisk buying at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday, lifting the index to new heights. The benchmark KSE-100 index soared by 1,230.05 or 1.52 percent to 81,174.14, compared to the previous close of 79,944.10 points. The stocks had Friday witnessed a volatile session after the decision of the Supreme Court on reserved seats, decreasing by 48.26 points or 0.06% to close at 79,944.10 points. Pakistan Stock Exchange remained under pressure during the outgoing week ended on July 12, 2024 as the investors opted to book profit on available margins. The benchmark KSE-100 index declined by 268.69 points on week-on-week basis and closed at 79,944.10 points. Trading activities remained dull as average daily volumes on ready counter decreased by 0.3 percent to 438.83 million shares during this week as compared to previous week’s average of 440.31 million shares while average daily traded value on the ready counter increased by 13.7 percent to Rs 20.77 billion during this week against previous week’s Rs 18.28 billion.

The foreign investors remained net buyers of shares worth $3.959million during this week. Total market capitalization increased by Rs36 billion during this week to Rs10.630 trillion. Sector-wise, auto assemblers, automobile parts & accessories, and woollen were amongst the top performers, up 7.0 percent/5.2 percent/5.0 percent WoW, respectively. On the other hand, miscellaneous, vanaspati & allied industries, and RIET were amongst the worst performers with a decline of 13.8 percent/3.7 percent/3.5 percent WoW. Flow wise, major net selling was recorded by Individuals and Mutual Funds with a net sell of $2.58million and $2.48million, respectively. On the other hand, Foreigners absorbed most of the selling with a net buy of $3.96million. Company-wise, top performers during the week were NBP (up 13.6 percent), FFBL (up 12.0 percent), UNITY (up 10.6 percent), ABL (up 10.3 percent) and PKGP (up 10.1 percent), while top laggards were SCBPL (down 8.1 percent), TRG (down 7.7 percent), THALL (down 6.2 percent), YOUW (down 5.1 percent) and KTML (down 4.8 percent).

Credit: Independent News Pakistan