KARACHI: There is nothing exciting to write home about the performance of the stock market and the Economic Survey 2017-18 itself draws the conclusion that the market “presented a mixed trend” in the year under review.

In the period from July-March FY18, the capital market remained volatile, the survey states and goes on to describe the trend. Till August 2017, it was rising, reaching the peak point of 47,084 on Aug 3, 2017 after which it started moving down reaching lowest closing point of 37,919 on December 19, 2017.

“The behaviour might apparently be linked to a few days earlier devaluation of Pakistani rupee which occurred due to market adjustment,” the survey presumed. However at the start of new calendar year 2018, the market gained momentum and on March 30, the KSE-100 index closed at 45,560.30 points with market capitalisation standing at Rs9,370.6 billion. The average daily value traded in first nine months of FY18 was Rs8.54 billion and the average daily turnover was 192.25m shares.

The survey fumbles for reasons to explain the dull and drab performance during the year. “There are many factors which brought a swing in emotions of the investors which in turn changed pace of their buying or selling activity,” it says and adds that the country has entered a new era of equity trading. “However, performance of Pakistan’s Capital Market will depend on domestic and international economic conditions in the future.”

The survey gives sector-wise analysis of the 16 listed sectors, mentioning the number of companies, paid-up capital, market capitalisation and profitability of each sector.

Foreign portfolio investment: The foreign investors offloaded securities worth $123.9 million during July 2017-March 2018 which was absorbed by domestic individual investors, companies and insurance companies. “This strong buying by local investors has shown the confidence of the investors in Pakistan equity market”, the report claims.

Other segments of capital market: The survey touches upon commodity market development; debt capital markets; leasing companies; investment banks; non-bank microfinance companies; Real Estate Investment Trust Scheme (REIT); Modaraba; National Saving Schemes and Voluntary Pension Schemes.

Mutual Funds: The mutual funds industry due to its rapid growth deserves special mention. Assets Under Management (AUM) of the mutual funds stood at Rs678bn on Feb 28, 2018. Equity funds dominated the AUMs of the industry with the largest share of mutual fund industry i.e 42.475 per cent. Money market funds held the second largest industry share with 18.710pc, followed by Income Funds with industry share of 18.587pc.

With not much to talk about the year that flew by, the Survey seeks refuge in past performance, recalling that the KSE 100 Index had witnessed its highest level of 52,876.46 on May 24, 2017. The survey also displays a list of achievements of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, which include demutalisation of the stock exchanges; integration of stock exchanges; divestment of 40pc shares of PSX to strategic investors; sale of 20pc stake of PSX and self-listing of PSX; Up-gradation of Pakistan to Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Emerging Markets Index. Incidentally almost all of that took place in the preceding years (2013-17).

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2018