Pakistan’s KSE-100 Index, emerging from a depressive bout during early market hours on Tuesday when it touched 48,655 points, has now shot up to 48,946 points, a tad higher than yesterday’s level at the closing bell.
Lagging security issues and the new wave of terrorism that has swept the country, coupled with the Panama Case hearings, have kept the benchmark index suppressed. The MSCI’s Emerging Markets status, which is officially set to be reinstated for Pakistan this May, has also been unable to retain the investors’ positive sentiment.
Almost 41 million shares (approximately Rs. 2 billion) have been traded till now.
Year-to-date (YTD), the 100 Index has only surpassed the 50k level once in late January 2017 but came close to breaking the barrier again last week. Although on a growth trajectory, recovering prior losses and showing significant improvement year-over-year (YoY) – average at 32,500 points in January 2016 – it now looks as if it is drifting to a pause.
On Monday, Inside Securities’ executive director of research Zeeshan Afzal said that futures accounted for almost a third of the traded value, while activity in the regular market dropped considerably.
Geo.TV on Saturday reported that the market saw foreign investors buying $4.2 million of shares last week. Adding to aforementioned factors, the local scene is still foggy with political noise and in-house financing still the investors’ main worries.
The Index keeps resisting the 50,000-point mark, and it looks quite unlikely for it to overcome the level anytime soon.