Karachi, October 08, 2021 (PPI-OT): Another lacklustre week at the local bourse

In addition to Pandora Papers, an alarming import bill, higher than expected inflation reading and rising global commodity prices, concerns over the upcoming IMF review continued to decrease investor activity. The KSE100 index closed the directionless week at 44,477 levels, down 0.9% WoW. Also, investor participation declined by 25% WoW to an average 265mn shares, whereas value traded averaged at US$60mn, down 21% WoW. Mounting coal prices led Cement sector to underperform the benchmark this week, delays in allocating incentives as per new Refinery Policy caused Refineries to show lagged performance and rising costs and depreciating PKR continued to pressure Automobile stocks.

On the other hand, higher global oil prices led to gains in the Oil and Gas Exploration sector. The State Bank of Pakistan held a T-Bill auction this week in which cut off rates increased by 21bps over anticipation of further monetary tightening in months to come. This also led to outperformance of Banking sector this week. On stock-wise performance, expectations of gas discovery ranked MARI among the best performers.