The week ended on 24th July 2020 was the 5th consecutive week, where the benchmark index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed in green. The market maintained its bullish momentum in the first three trading sessions and witnessed consolidation in the latter part of the week, closing the week at 37,608 points, up 0.74%WoW. Rumors about fines on cement companies as well as profit taking brought the cement sector under pressure in last two trading sessions. Average daily traded volume during the week declined 4.5%WoW to 407 million shares. The scrips generating bulk of the volume included: HASCOL, UNITY, TRG, KEL and MLCF. Major gainers were: SHEL, SERT, ANL and KAPCO, whereas laggards included: ARPL, PAEL, DGKC and PMPK.
Major news driving the market during the week included: 1) Current account deficit for June 20 reported at US$96 million, down 90%YoY, taking the full year deficit to US$2.9 billion, down 78%YoY as compared to for the corresponding period last year, 2) US$750 million agreements signed with WB, AIIB under RISE program, 3) GoP reviewed withdrawing generalized subsidies and increasing electricity tariff to pass-on the impact and 3) GoP also announced promulgation of Oil Refining and Marketing Policy 2020. The incentives in draft package would be applicable to all new ‘state of the art’ deep conversion (not second hand/relocated) oil refinery projects of minimum 100,000 bpd refining capacities to be set up anywhere in the country. Accordingly, the ban imposed by OGRA on retail development by Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) in relation to lack of storage capacity in the regional context shall be lifted. Major board meetings in the upcoming week include FFC and EFERT. The PSX may continue to witness consolidation on the onset of Eid holidays and roll over week, given a 10% rally over the past one month.