The stocks market remained sluggish in the past week, with the benchmark index attaining merely 120 points (0.26 percent), closing at 45,306 points. The daily average turnover was 368 million shares, down 10pc from the previous week on the account of Ramadan. The average trade value was down 18pc to $100m in the outgoing week.
A damper was put on the substantial gains of the KSE-100 index in the first trading session which was recorded in the previous week. The index shed 208 points as investors are worried about a possible lockdown in the midst of the ongoing third wave of Covid-19. However, the bulls caught the stock market on Tuesday as the infection ratio has decreased Meanwhile, the International prices for oil surged up to 3.6pc on weekly basis. This led to the buying across the index-heavy exploration and production shares.
As Indicated by Arif Habib Ltd, the assumption of outstanding quarterly results on large-scale manufacturing crawling up 7.45pc in July-February. The foreign exchange reserves climbing up to a five-year high of $23.2 billion that also helped the KSE-100 index to close the week on a flattish note. The Sector-wise contribution went upside to 120 points which were led by commercial banks (81 points), technology and communication firms (78 points), fertilizer companies (43 points), automobile assemblers (25 points), and oil and gas exploration entities (18 points).
According to AKD market sentiments, the upcoming week is likely to be marked by the financial results of commercial banks. MCB Bank, Habib Bank, United Bank, and Meezan Bank will release their profit-and-loss statements for the Jan-March quarter next week.
