December 29, 2001	Saturday	Shawwal 13, 1422

KARACHI, Dec 28: Stocks finished the weekend session well above the initial lows as a late burst of short-covering at the lower levels drove bears out of the market but the future outlook appears uncertain owing to fears of Indian attack.

The recovery may not have signalled the return of a bull market, it seems to be a welcome change in the prevailing uncertainty and steep decline of 134 point in the KSE index during the last couple of sessions.

“A decline of about 12 per cent in the index over the week should have evoked a lot of buying in normal conditions, but investors think twice before inflating their portfolios in war-like conditions,” says a stock analyst.

The KSE 100-share index early was off 40 points on selling prompted by counter diplomatic moves by Pakistan and India, leading to an imminent war postures, but subsequent advent of institutional support allowed it to finish fully recovered.

It finally finished off only 7.53 points at 1,269.21 but in any case it was a grand bull fight back in market weighed down by external negative factors.

However, it was unsure whether or not the weekend recovery could be carried forward as the war-like situation may not allow fresh commitments by the investors, including the financial institutions.

Floor brokers said war fears were there but some tired bulls were not inclined to sit on the sidelines and covered positions at the lower levels in an oversold market.

“The halt in the panic sell-off was also attributed to G-8 meeting and the perception of some warning to the war-mongers also aided the underlying sentiment,” they added.

Any further aid commitment by it to compensate Pakistan’s war losses could also reverse the current bearish trend but a possibility of a sustained run-up still appears a remote possibility.

Minus signs again dominated the list, although the extent of decline was not that alarming as it has been during the last couple of sessions.

Largest fall of Rs3 to Rs10 were noted in some of the leading MNCs, notably Glaxo-Wellcome Pakistan and Nestle MilkPak, followed by ICI Pakistan, Dawood Hercules and some others, falling by Rs1.40 to Rs2.

Others followed them were National Food, Security Paper, PSO, Adamjee Insurance, Javed Omer, Quetta Textiles and Sapphire Textiles were leading, which fell by one rupee to Rs2.90.

Among the prominent gainers, Habib Sugar, EFU General Insurance, Atlas Battery, BOC Pakistan, Clariant Pakistan, Century Paper and Lever Brothers were leading, up one rupee to Rs7.

Trading volume fell to 82 million shares from the previous 100 million shares as losers maintained a fair lead over the gainers at 82 to 40, out of 161 actives.

Hub-Power was again actively traded, firm by five paisa at Rs15.75 on 37m shares followed by Hub-Power, easy by the same amount at Rs13.60 on 26m shares, PSO, off one rupee at Rs92.50 on 6m shares, Fauji Fertilizer, up 65 paisa at Rs41.15 on 2m shares and Engro Chemical, lower 40 paisa at Rs51.70 also on 2m shares.

Other actives were led by Sui Northern, easy 10 paisa on 1.720m shares, ICI Pakistan, off Rs1.40 on 1.584m shares, MCB, lower 95 paisa on 1.007m shares and Nishat Mills and Adamjee Insurance, up five paisa and down Rs1.75 on 0.967 and 0.948m shares respectively.

NATIONAL BANK: It ended unchanged at Rs11.65, the day’s highest on a volume of 0.308m shares. The low was touched at Rs11.05.

FUTURE CONTRACTS: Speculative issues on the forward counter also followed the lead their counterparts in the ready section fell by Rs1.10 to Rs1.45 under the lead of MCB and PSO on modest volumes.

Hub-Power again led the list of actives, unchanged and up by five paisa for both the December and the January contracts at Rs15.70 and Rs15.95 on 4.266m and 5.051m shares respectively.

PTCL followed it lower by five and 11 paisa at Rs13.55 and Rs13.75 on 3.790m and 3.762m shares for both contracts. Other price changes were fractional amid low turnover.

DEFAULTING COMPANIES: Only shares of Allied Motors came in for modest two way trading but finally fell by 15 paisa at Rs2.85 on 1,000 shares.