KARACHI: The stock market witnessed lacklustre activity in the outgoing week mainly because of uncertainty over the resumption of a loan programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

According to Arif Habib Ltd, the IMF has sought confirmation on external financing from bilateral countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, before unlocking the next loan tranche.

The negative triggers led the rupee to depreciate 0.21 per cent against the dollar on a weekly basis to close at 283.79.

Moreover, reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) fell by $345 million on a weekly basis to settle at $4.2 billion.

As a result, the benchmark index of the stock market closed at 40,001 points, up 58 points or 0.15pc from a week ago.

Sector-wise, positive contributions came from automobile assembling (61 points), fertiliser (34 points), cement (10 points), insurance (four points) and glass and ceramics (three points).

Sectors that contributed negatively to the index were miscellaneous (112 points), commercial banking (20 points), power generation and distribution (17 points), food and personal care products (14 points) and oil and gas exploration (11 points).

Scrip-wise, positive contributors were Millat Tractors Ltd (57 points), Engro Fertilisers Ltd (38 points), Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd (29 points), Systems Ltd (23 points) and Pakistan Oilfields Ltd (17 points).

Meanwhile, negative contributions came from Pakistan Services Ltd (118 points), Engro Corporation Ltd (35 points), Bank AL Habib Ltd (27 points), TRG Pakistan Ltd (22 points) and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (20 points).

Foreign selling was witnessed during the outgoing week and clocked in at $0.3m versus a net purchase of $0.5m a week ago. Major selling was witnessed in fertiliser ($0.9m) and textile composite ($0.7m).

On the local front, buying was reported by banks ($4.6m) and companies ($4.5m). The average daily volume arrived at 92m shares, down 31pc from a week ago. The average daily value traded settled at $12m, down 6pc from the preceding week.

According to AKD Securities, the market’s focus in the coming week will be on the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of the SBP, which is scheduled to meet on April 4.

“The market will also be focusing on any positive developments on the staff-level agreement with the IMF, which could create a rally in the market. However, until there are clear economic and political developments, we anticipate the market to remain in a range-bound state,” it added.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2023