KARACHI: The KSE-100 index had all the right reasons to show wild swings during the outgoing week, but finally closed with gains of 618 points (1.4 per cent) at 45,912.

Extending the preceding week’s positive trend, the week commenced on a strong note with the index adding 624 points in the first two days trading, with local individuals and banks being the main buyers.

The market traded lacklustre mid-week, but on Friday as the five-member bench of the Supreme Court spelled out its verdict that disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the index witnessed one of the largest single day swings – recovering from 1,670 points (-3.6pc) in the negative at the start of day’s trade to positive closing by a marginal 6 points.

According to dealers at Arif Habib Ltd (AHL), sector-wise gainers during the week were: oil and gas exploration companies 191 points; food and personal care products 137 points; power generation 132 point; fertiliser 97 points and oil and gas marketing companies 61 points.

Average daily volumes for the outgoing week were up 48 per cent week-on-week to 198 million shares, from 135m shares and value was higher by 36pc week-in-week. Activity was focused in retail favorite stocks, which included ANL 87m shares, TRG 76m shares, BOP 54m shares, SSGC 51m shares and EPCL 51m shares.

Foreign selling clocked in at $13.2m during the week against $2.01m in the earlier week. Major foreign outflows were witnessed in cements $7.3m; commercial banks $3.9m and power generation $2.6m, while inflows were noted in fertiliser sector of $3.4m. Among local participants, mutual funds were net sellers of $28.2m worth stocks during the week, while individual were net buyers of $24m.

Elixir Securities calculated that during the outgoing week, oil stocks rallied the most tracking international oil prices which rose 4.5pc week-on-week with OGDC, PPL, POL, cumulatively pulling the index up by a cumulative 154 points, while NESTLE and HUBC contributed further 228 points. On the flip side, LUCK, HBL, UBL, MCB, and PSMC cumulatively dragged the benchmark index by 270 points. Moreover, positive performance was also witnessed in the oil and gas, power and export oriented stocks that stand to gain from potential depreciation in rupee.

Such stocks included AVN, HUBC, PPL, which rallied 14pc, 6pc and 3pc, respectively. On the other hand, Fauji Foods jumped 15.8pc during the week, on the back of announcement of right issue of Rs3.3bn along with its financial results.

According to AKD Securities, scrips leading the bourse week-on-week were: EFOODS 5.8pc, HUBC 5.7pc, POL 5.4pc, MLCF 4.3p and INDU 4.14pc; whereas laggards included PSMC 6.9pc, LUCK 6.1pc, ASTL 2.5pc, APL 2.0pc and MCB 1.9pc.

Outlook: AHL analysts predicted that the market could find new support as the decision of the Supreme Court had largely cleared out the fog that had been gathering over weeks.

“Foreign selling might be a slight damper but we view domestic investors to show enough resilience to overcome such pressures,” AHL said and added that the immediate triggers included the result season which could keep specific scraps in the limelight.

AKD Securities said the repercussions of the precedent setting Panamagate verdict are likely to cut across investor sentiment, with continuity of government and continued grip on economic affairs at the fore.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2017