KARACHI: Bulls continued to command the stock market in the outgoing week, recording gains of 1,140 points (3.15 per cent) and closing at 37,331.

Save for the session on Wednesday when it paused for a breather, the market has carried on its journey to the north in the last 15 of 16 trading days accumulating aggregate gains of 3,618 points (10.9pc). Investors’ enthusiasm for the equities in cement, exploration and production companies; automobile and pharmaceutical sector continued to drive the market higher.

Cement stocks remained under the spotlight as several developments for the construction industry offered promise for growth in demand of the cyclicals cement and steel. Those initiatives included the government’s preparation to build low-cost subsidised houses by the announcement of 0.3 million subsidy for first 0.1m homes in Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme and the prime minister’s inauguration of work at Daimer Bhasha Dam.

Further, the SBP directed all commercial banks to allocate 5pc of their portfolio to construction sector. E&P received boost from announcement of oil discovery in the Tal Block. Foreigners sold shares in a hefty sum of $27.4m as against net sale of stocks worth $9.4m the week earlier. Major outflow was witnessed in the E&P sector at $20.40m and fertiliser $2.61m. Local participants that absorbed much of the liquidity included individuals $15.93m, followed by insurance $14.29m.

Average volume was up 22pc over the previous week to 426m, while the mean traded value spiked 34pc to $99.3m. Analysts at Arif Habib Ltd said the contribution to the index upside was led by cements, higher by 213 points, oil and gas exploration companies 196 points, fertiliser 149 points, automobile assembler 91 points and commercial banks 55 points.

Scrip-wise, major gainers were Lucky Cement, up 85 points, Pakistan Oilfields 78 points, Dawood Hercules 77 points, Pakistan Petroleum 75 points and Indus Motor 63 points. Whereas key losers were Bank Alfalah, down 13 points, National Bank nine points, Abbott and Systems Ltd eight points each, and Colgate-Palmolive seven points.

Other positive news during the week were: remittances that hit all-time high of $23.12bn in FY20, improvement in June passenger car sales by 93pc month-on-month; Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority notifying 2-6pc reduction in the prescribed prices of Sui twins for FY21, increase in foreign exchange reserves by 0.85pc to $18.9bn and further decline in T-Bill cut-off yields in the range of 8-29 basis points.

Going forward, the market was expected to take cue from the quality of corporate financial results as the season goes into full bloom. Other factors that could determine the direction include the continuation of decline in Covid-19 cases; stability in the rupee-dollar parity due to rising foreign exchange reserves and encouraging news on the economic revival.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2020