PSX Daily Market Review - 15th March 2019

Trading volume at PSX floor dropped by 7.67 million shares or 8.20% on DoD basis, whereas the benchmark KSE100 index opened at 38,936.09, posted a day high of 38,999.39 and a day low of 38,751.60 points during last trading session while session suspended at 38,808.61 with net change of -120.32 points and net trading volume of 58.90 million shares. Daily trading volume of KSE100 listed companies dropped by 8.64 million shares or 12.79% on DoD basis.
Foreign Investors remained in net selling positions of 9.00 million shares and net value of Foreign Inflow dropped by 8.24 million US Dollars. Categorically, Corporate remained in net selling positions of 9.20 million shares and Overseas Pakistani Investors remained in net buying positions of 0.20 million shares respectively. While on the other side Local Individuals, Banks, Mutual Fund and Brokers remained in net buying positions of 6.64, 1.76, 0.64 and 4.80 million shares respectively but Local Companies, NBFCs and Insurance Companies remained in net selling positions of 4.47, 0.04 and 0.30 million shares.

Asian stocks up as Sino-U.S. trade talks in focus, dollar supported
Asian stocks stepped ahead on Friday as sentiment improved on a report that more progress has been made in U.S.-China trade talks and after UK lawmakers voted to delay a potentially chaotic exit from the European Union. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He spoke by telephone with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, with the two sides making further substantive progress on trade talks, Xinhua news agency said on Friday. Yet, the prospect of the trade talks taking longer than expected tempered the cheer, and there was still no clarity on how close the two economic powers are on reaching an agreement.
Increase in exports: Pakistan lags behind its regional competitors
Pakistan’s exports had increased at very low pace as against the regional competitors due to higher cost of doing business, energy costs, low productivity and higher imports tariffs on inputs. The officials of Commerce Division on Thursday informed a parliamentary committee that Pakistan’s exports had increased at the annual growth rate of only 5.1 percent whereas its regional competitors registered growth rate of 16 percent during the period 1991-2018. The meeting of Standing Committee on Commerce and Textile was held with Syed Naveed Qamar, MNA in the chair.
PSDP for FY2019-20 likely to stay unchanged at Rs675b
A parliamentary committee was Thursday informed that the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) for the fiscal 2019-20 is likely to stay unchanged and will remain at Rs 675 billion. The National Assembly Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Reforms that met with Junaid Akbar in chair expressed reservations over the 12th five year plan (2018-2023) and termed it unrealistic.
LSM growth falls by 2.3pc in 7 months
The large-scale manufacturing (LSM) index witnessed negative growth of 2.3 percent during seven months of current fiscal year indicating that economic activities have decelerated in the country. The LSM growth had declined by 2.3 percent in July-January period of the fiscal year 2018-19 as compared to the corresponding period of previous year, reported the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). Similarly, the LSM growth went down by 4.64 percent during January 2018 as against the corresponding period of previous year.
After chasing 400 foreign bank accounts for five months, FBR recovers $1.2m from one case
Out of the 400 offshore bank accounts of Pakistanis involving an amount of over $1 million each, the Federal Board of Revenue has managed to recover tax in one instance only — a mere Rs170 million ($1.22m) — in the past five months. Following the Panama Leaks cases, the FBR only managed to raise a tax demand of Rs6.5 billion so far. The National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance, led by its chairman MNA Faiz Ullah, on Thursday was briefed about the poor tax recovery situation at the FBR in foreign assets cases. The news of low recovery from offshore accounts did not go well with the committee members who expressed serious concern over FBR’s performance.

The Benchmark KSE100 index is trying to maintain its supportive region on daily chart since start of this week and being last trading session of the week current trading session is very important because today’s closing above 39,000 points would strengthen bullish sentiment and if index would succeed in maintaining above 38,770 points then it would also be a positive gesture for coming week. For current trading session it’s recommended to stay cautious and start buying on dip with strict stop loss of 38,500 points. On Flip side index would face resistances at 39,053 and 39,350 points from two strong horizontal resistant regions.