KSE-100 hit two record highs in volume, after 2.2 and 1.6 billion shares were traded across consecutive days. Weekly average traded volume rose to 1.2 billion, which is the highest ever recorded. Highest interest was in the stock for WorldCall, which had over 1.5 billion worth of shares traded in two days. While it is a low value individual stock, the whole market moved up as the economy recovers. However, the PKR/USD exchange rate continued to depreciate, fluctuating between the PKR 154-155 level. Gold prices continued their upward trajectory, with international prices up over 6% since last month.
The annual change in Sensitive Price Index is down to 16.34% vs. 17.23% last week. This is the first time in 4 weeks that annual change in SPI fell as weekly inflation dropped by 0.63%. The change is also the lowest recorded in 9 weeks. The whole country experienced lower inflation on an annual basis than last week. The lowest 20% of the population still faced highest inflation burden. Prices of Tomatoes (+2.76%), Masoor (+2.25%) and Milk (+0.36%) increased slightly this week. However, inflation for the week dropped mainly because prices for Chicken (-14.49%) and Onions (-10.61%) fell. Chicken alone contributed to almost 75% of the decrease in overall prices for essential commodities for the week, leading to lower food inflation.
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