Karachi, December 03, 2021 (PPI-OT): Carnage continues at local bourse – KSE100 Index loses 2% WoW

Consecutively marking a negative closing this week, the KSE100 ended the trading session today at 43,234, posting a loss of 881points (-2%WoW), as all major sectors lost value. Market reacted negatively to the news of an alarmingly high import bill at US$8bn for Nov-2021 and a significant increase in the cut-off yields (an increment of 228bps) for three-month treasury bills in the recent auction due to a higher than expected CPI reading of 11.5% for Nov-2021. PKR lost 1% during the week against the US$. On the other hand, international commodity prices witnessed a decline after news of the emergence of a new COVID-19 variant, Omicron.

During the week, OPEC+ in its meeting decided to enhance output as per initial plan but also kept the door open for cuts if Omicron becomes more virulent. MSCI related rebalancing also took place this week, taking net foreign outflow to US$63mn as Paksitan was reclassified from MSCI EM to MSCI FM. Out of this, net foreign outflow in the Banking sector was US$27mn. In other news, foreign exchange reserves have dropped to a level of US$16bn, declining by US$244mn during the week ending Nov26’21 and brought Pakistan’s import cover to 2.7 months.