Darkness before dawn

Karachi, July 27, 2019: The domestic equity bourse remained lackluster throughout the outgoing week. While PM Khan’s successful visit to the US could not generate a sustainable rally at the index, foreign policy appears to be in-check.

Albeit, AHL research pin commencement of the result season as the key reason behind the aforementioned index performance, given weaker. Outcomes expected in cyclical sectors such as cement, steel, and automobiles. The market closed at 32,103 points, shedding 356 points / 1.10 percent WoW.

Sector-wise negative contributions were led by Power Generation & Distribution (71 points), Food & Personal Care Products (66 points), Oil & Gas Marketing Companies (49 points), Cement (39 points), and Tobacco (27 points). Scrip-wise negative contributions came from HUBC (48 points), ENGRO (47 points), NESTLE (31 points), MARI (31 points) and PAKT (27 points).

Foreign buying was witnessed this week clocking-in at USD 8.4 million compared to a net buy of USD 6.4 million last week. Buying was witnessed in Commercial Banks (USD 5.6 million) and Cement (USD 2.3 million).

On the domestic front, major selling was reported by Mutual Funds (USD 13.4 million) and Companies (USD 1.2 million). Average Volumes settled at 75 million shares (down by 29 percent WoW) while average value traded clocked-in at USD 21 million (down by 13 percent WoW).