Stock Review.

Byline: SHABBIR KAZMI

Little recovery seen after a positive development with IMF Following a 1,049 points decline a week ago, the market recovered 520 points on the first trading session of the week ended on April 28, 2022 on the back positive development with International Monetary Fund (IMF). According to their spoke person, the IMF delegation is expected to visit Pakistan in May. In addition to this, the length of the program is also expected to increase till June 2023 with additional US$2 billion financing arrangement, taking the total program size to US$8 billion. The upward movement, however, was short lived as the returns got trimmed in upcoming sessions as KIBOR reached 14-year high to 14.1% and T-Bill yields spiked 15%, hitting a 22-year high. As a result, the benchmark index of Pakistan Stock Exchange 100 posted a net decline of 304 points to close at 45,249 points, down 0.67%WoW. Other news flow during the week included: 1) Current Account Deficit (CAD) swelling to US$13 billion for the first nine months of current financial year, 2) IT exports increasing 29.3%YoY to US$1.9 billion, 3) Finance Minister, Miftah Ismail holding talks with key global investors, 4) portfolio allocations to six cabinet members, and 5) 9MFY22 fiscal deficit widening to PKR2.6 trillion (4% of GDP). In addition to this, the technical level talks with IMF have also started under which the stress will be placed on the curtailment of CAD and other prior actions based on the latest data available. Sector wise, the highest gainers were Cable and Electrical Goods (up 22.4%WoW) and Vanaspati and Allied Industries (up 1.2%WoW). Close-end Mutual Funds declined the most (down 14.0%WoW), followed by Synthetic and Rayon, (down 5.3%WoW). Stock wise, top performers were: LOTCHEM, NESTLE, BAFL, ABOT and BAHL, while laggards were: DCL, KTML, MUGHAL, PTC and FFBL. Volume leaders during the week were: HUMNL, WTL, TELE, PRL and PAEL. Flow wise, Insurance companies emerged as the net sellers offloading US$6.71 million, followed by Mutual Funds (US$4.87 million) and Banks and DFIs (US$2.93 million). On the flipside, Foreigners accumulated shares worth US$3.17 million during the week. Similarly, Individuals and Companies remained on the buying side, with a net buy of US$5.78 million and US$2.98 million, respectively. After the downward correction faced by the market during the week under review, analysts expect it to remain jittery in the near term. As the country settles into...