The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE), considered as one of the world's best performing stock markets, had a steady week ending today with just a small gain of 69 points or 0.3 per cent in the week.
After weeks of hefty gains and strong rallies which saw the 100-index shares benchmark cross the 23,000 points mark, this week saw the KSE end its rally of hefty gains as profit taking subsided.
According to industry analysts the KSE has risen by 40 per cent in local currency terms this year and last year also posted a gain of around 49 per cent.
"Basically one can put down the strong performance of the KSE to the first peaceful transition of a civilian government to another in the May elections, the securing of an IMF loan recently and also because local investors are now also showing interest in foreign share markets and vice versa," Ahmed Hatmi, a stock dealer and analyst said.
He said that with the corporate earnings season coming to a close, the KSE will perform stronger in the coming weeks.
According to details, the KSE 100-index rose by 1.5 per cent in the first three days of the week to hit an all time high of 23,946 points.
However, profit-taking in the final two sessions of the week, pulled the index down to 23,497 points at the close of the week.
The week started on a strong note after the Finance Minister Ishaq Dar confirmed that the IMF had agreed to increase its package to USD 6.5 billion, with speculation that it will be further increased to USD 7.5 billion.
It also emerged that the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank will also provide USD 500 million budgetary support loans to the country.
The news was welcomed by investors even as the country's foreign exchange reserves continued to slip downwards and perilously close to the USD 10-billion threshold after a decline of USD 299 million to close at USD 10.2 billion, according to latest figures released by the State Bank of Pakistan.
The continuous devaluing of the local currency against the US dollar which sold for as high as 104.80 in the open market is the only concern for investors, analyst said.
"But it is a good sign that the finance minister Ishaq Dar has met with the Governor of the State Bank, exchange and currency market representatives and dealers this week to find ways to halt this continuous devaluation of the rupee," one analyst said.
"It will boost the stock market when it reopens for trading tomorrow," he added.
In the earning announcements made this week in the KSE there were disappointments as the results for the first half of 2013 announced by Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim and Askari Bank were below expectations, particularly for Askari Bank Limited which reported a loss of Rs 4.7 billion.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) did well this week with its shares increasing by around 10 per cent.
As per details provided by the KSE, trading volumes rose by 39.5 per cent to stand at 302 million shares traded per day on average this week and the KSE's market capitalization stood at Rs 5.74 trillion at the end of the week.
