LAHORE  -  The Pakistan Stock Exchange closed another week on a positive note with the KSE 100-share index gaining 2.4 percent WoW and closing at 43,948 points.

Bulls remained in charge as appointment of six-member caretaker cabinet during the week affirmed investor confidence. Newly appointed finance minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar took notice of deteriorating macros quickly, holding review meetings on the economy and is also expected to meet IMF officials during their visit to Pakistan. Likewise, optimisim was also reflected by the increase in volumes as daily trade volumes averaged at 184m shares. On the other hand, foreign investors continued their selling spree with net selling of $29m during the week, while insurance sector continued to absorb the selling with net buying of $18m.

Among key sectors, oil & gas marketing companies (+4.2 percent WoW), banks (+4.1 percent WoW) and chemicals (+5.2 percent WoW) outshined as attractive multiples drew investor attention; while power (-1.9 percent WoW) and textile composite (-2.0 percent WoW) remained the major laggards. Key stocks which garnered attention during the week were Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Ltd (SNGP, +12.3 percent WoW) and Sui Southern Gas Co Ltd (SSGC, +6.9 percent WoW) as OGRA approved new market based tariff regime for the aforementioned companies as compared to fixed return formula previously. In the autos space, key development was notification by Nishat Mills Ltd (NML, +1.6 percent WoW) to announce completion of its assembly plant for Hyundai vehicles in Dec-2019.

Other key news during the week were (1) figures revealing release of Rs742b under PSDP vis-a-vis revised target of Rs750b for FY18, (2) release of World Bank's estimates for Pakistan's GDP growth for FY18 (5.8 percent) and FY19 (5 percent), (3) SBP's MTBs auction which fetched Rs1tr with majority participation in 3-month paper and witnessed increase in cut-off yields by 50bps, (4) cement sales for May-2018 depicting 6 percent YoY growth, taking 11MFY18 growth to 14 percent YoY (42.91mn tons sold during 11MFY18) and (5) FATF meeting being held from June 24 to 26 in Paris.

Experts said that buoyant momentum persisted for the third consecutive week in Pakistan equities amid successful formation of caretaker setup in country and ease-off in global politics. Following its historical upbeat in caretaker setup, Pakistan equities have so far provided positive return of 2.4 percent in first five sessions of interim setup vs average of 17 percent in full tenure historically.

During the outgoing week, benchmark index went up by 2.4 percent or 1,035 points where banking scrips clasped investors’ attention amid their enticing valuation and anticipation of higher interest rate going forward. Among top banks, United Bank (UBL) went up by 8 percent, Habib Bank (HBL) 7 percent, and MCB Bank +4 percent. Market participation during the week showed significant improvement, where volumes and value both went up by 54 percent and 62 percent, respectively.

Foreigners remained net sellers for the fifth consecutive week amounting to $29.5m vs net selling of $17.5m last week. On the other hand, amongst local investors insurance were net buyers of $17.9m whereas individual were net buyer of $4.9m. During the week, Treet Corporation (TREET) in its EOGM passed resolution to raise funds up to Rs1b through rated, listed, secured, perpetual, and convertible instruments of redeemable capital in form of Treet Perpetual Sukuk subject to approval of relevant authorities.

Singer Pakistan (SING) announced its financial result for 2017 and 1Q2018. In 2017, company posted EPS of Rs3.5, up by 67 percent YoY due to increase in revenues by 1.63x YoY. While, GP margins went down by 5ppts YoY to 30 percent. In 1Q2018 results, SING posted EPS of Rs1.1, up by 9 percent YoY due to increase in revenues by 3.7x YoY. While, selling and distribution expenses went up by 1.5x YoY.

The World Bank (WB) lowered down its projections for Pakistan’s GDP growth to 5 percent against officially envisaged target of 6.2 percent for the financial year 2018-19 on the basis of possibility of adoption of tighter policies to improve macroeconomic stability.

The public sector enterprises’ (PSEs) debt has almost soared to Rs1 trillion at the end of third quarter of FY18, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reported in its latest issue of Statistical Bulletin for June.

Minister for Finance and Revenue Dr Shamshad Akhtar directed Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to make all possible efforts to achieve the revenue collection target for the current fiscal year.