Local stock market still indecisive, 100 Index stagnates around 49,400 points

KARACHI: Following a two-day fall when it almost touched 49,200-point level, Pakistan’s KSE-100 Index is now recovering some of the losses from past week.

The benchmark index peaked on Monday to 49,597 points just after 9:30 AM local time during the early market hours and is now hovering up nearly 0.05 percent around 49,400 points. About 19.88 million shares have been traded till now, in business worth approximately Rs. 1.27 billion.

 

source: tradingeconomics.com

 

Despite the recent wave of terrorism in Pakistan, Geo.TV reported on Saturday, foreign investors purchased $4.2 million in shares last week. The local scene is a bit foggy, with Pakistani investors’ concerns being the political noise and in-house financing.

KSE-100 Index fell 549 points (~1 percent) to close at 49,375 points during the week ended February 17.

In this regard, Insight Securities’ Zeeshan Afzal commented, “Although the matter is more with Islamabad and Lahore’s brokers yet investors were cautious.”

The Index is resisting the 50k territory and has only served short positive stints every few days.

Markets have been experiencing bearish sentiment ever since the liquidity crisis caused by the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan's (SECP) order to Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) to fix the defaulting issue by selling off the brokers' holdings and paying off the investors’ dues.

It is interesting to note that Pakistan’s stock market expanded 46 percent in 2016, something commendable given the overall conditions and regional peer exchanges.