Pakistan stock dips 17pc, valuations attractive to bounce back

F.P. Report

KARACHI: Pakistan Stock Exchange after six weeks of continuous decline bounced back and registered an increase of around 800 points but selling from foreign investors registered unabated.

After six weeks of decline, Pakistan’s benchmark KSE-100 index bounced back gaining 2 percent or 782 points on weekly basis where index closed at 39400 points.

An analyst from Topline Securities said that some dust settled on the political front where the delimitation bill was passed paving way for timely elections in 2018, civil-military tensions eased as after a 6 year period as Army Chief appeared in senate where he answered critical questions including the denial of Army’s role in Faizabad religious parties’ protest.

Further, PML-N de-facto boss Nawaz Sharif tapped his younger brother as Prime Minister candidate for next elections.

Foreigners sold $5.4 million during the week versus selling of $8.9 million last week.

On the local front, Individual were net buyers of $2 million worth of shares whereas Banks were net sellers of $4.5 million.

BMA Capital said with the country still ravaged by political uncertainty and there being very few positive triggers, the prevalent market conditions remain choppy. This causes the trading volumes to be low, meaning positive movements in the market are unsustainable.

Moving ahead in to the last week of the year, some correction at the local bourse cannot be ruled out as rollover week is set to begin from Tuesday.

Having said that, “We highlight that 17 percent correction in market (CYTD) has made valuations attractive where locals have ample liquidity to resume a pullback in the market as political concerns subside”, an analyst said.