KARACHI: During the month of November 2018, Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Index lost 3.0 percent or 1,220 points, as market participants were mainly disappointed that the government was unable to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to immediately receive a bailout package to help overcome the country’s economic challenges.

“Moreover, $1.0 billion injection in foreign exchange reserves from Saudi Arabia last week was unable to improve investors’ sentiment,” an analyst at Topline Securities said.

During the outgoing week ended November 30, 2018, Pakistan Equities remained volatile due to the aforesaid reason. Moreover, the rupee hit an all time low against the US Dollar during intra-day trading on Friday, while investors were anxiously awaiting State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) Monetary Policy Statement (MPS). KSE-100 index witnessed a correction during the week, posting an attrition of 0.9 percent or 373 points.

Volumes also remained sluggish during the week, as average daily traded volumes declined by 3.0 percent. On the flip side, average daily value witnessed a massive jump, with 28 percent growth, clocking in at $71 million/day.

“On sector-wise performance, the refinery sector emerged as one of the laggards, posting a decline of 11 percent primarily on the back of news reports indicating towards rise in furnace oil inventories, leading to lowest utilization levels; and if not rectified can lead to closure of manufacturing units,” Karim Punjani at JS Global said.

International oil prices declined by 24 percent this month, severely hurting E&P’s and OMC’s as they chipped away 735 points, cumulatively, making them the worst performing sectors for the month of November.

Foreign selling for the month stood at $100 million, which was the highest in 18 months. In 2018 so far, foreign portfolio investors have offloaded securities worth a net of $509 million. This is also the 10th consecutive month of foreign selling.

With the central bank’s decision to raise policy rate by 150bps coupled with currency depreciation, analysts expect market participation to remain dampened in the coming week. “Additionally, the direction of market remains contingent upon developments on G20 meeting and OPEC’s meeting scheduled on December 06, 2018,” an analyst at BIPL Securities said.