FLASHNEWS:

JS Securities Limited – Weekly Review (July 22, 2022)

Karachi, July 22, 2022 (PPI-OT): KSE100 index dives over political mayhem

Delay in clarity over the IMF program and political uncertainty introduced after the by-elections in Punjab took a toll on the equity markets taking benchmark index down by 1,998 points to 40,077 level. Negative sentiments were fueled by consistent depreciation of Pak Rupee against the greenback, closing at its all-time low of 229 this week (-23% CYTD). Market participation witnessed a drop this week as avg. volumes decreased by 8% WoW, while traded value also declined by 31% WoW. Individuals remained key buyers with net buying of US$5.0mn.

On the other hand, Mutual Funds remained net sellers offloading US$7.6mn worth of equities. Engineering (-8.2%), Refinery (-8.1%), Cement (-7.3%) and OMC (-6.6%) sectors were among the major underperformers during the week. In other news, Fitch also downgraded its outlook on Pakistan to negative following Moody’s, which had demoted the country last month. On the other hand, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail conducted a press briefing during the week to control damage and assured that the government would be able to manage funding gap of US$4bn soon with the help of friendly countries and that the IMF program is on track. Moreover, according to data released by SBP, foreign exchange reserves decreased 4% on a weekly basis.