KARACHI, June 26: Stocks on Wednesday failed to hold on to early gains on Wednesday as late profit-selling in most of the pivotals did not allow them to follow a set price pattern.

A widely speculated post-budget rally has so far failed to manifest itself in a big way on any of the counters, although there were more than one technical reasons, which could hasten its debut, a member of the KSE laments, but added “hopes for better days in the months to come”.

After opening higher on active follow-up support, the market shed in part the most of the overnight gains but the future outlook appears to be a bit bullish in the backdrop of positive economic indicators.

The KSE 100-share index opened with an extended rise supported by renewed buying in the leading base shares and early rose by about 14 points. But profit-taking toward the closing bell, pushed it down by 1.46 points to close at 1,774.84.

“The delay in the year-end buying by both the leading brokerage houses and the institutional traders is weighing against the sentiment and until it comes, the trading may remain sluggish,” predicts a leading stock analyst.

It is customary with the stock market that it attracts a lot of covering purchases at the end of the fiscal to fill portfolio gaps to reopen the new year account on a positive note.

“Excepting fears about the law and order situation, I don’t think there is any other irritant holding back short-covering,” he says, adding “many not may agree but the current levels provide an attractive bait for those who could take risks.”

But beyond it most brokerage houses are lamenting on the low volumes, which could well mean low margin, leading to net losses.

Active bouts of buying and selling on small margins reflects that investors are playing on short-term basis and are not inclined to rollover positions to the next session for no apparent bearish reasons.

Investors appear to be awaiting the post-budget advent of institutional buying and until it makes bigger showing the terribly low daily volume may well remain the hallmark of trading, says a leading stock analyst.

“The market is in search of positive direction as warranted by the post-budget scenario but the tragedy is that no one has the courage to bell the cat despite easing of border tension,” says a broker.

Prominent gainers were led by 9th and 11th ICP Mutual Funds, Network Leasing, KASB & Co, Shell Pakistan, EFU Life Insurance, Al-Ghazi Tractors, Pak Elektron and Javed Omer, which posted gains ranging from one rupee to Rs2.60.

Losers were led by Shafiq Textiles, Sk&F, Packages, Lever Brothers, Abbott Lab, Pak Reinsurance and Wyeth Pakistan, off one rupee to Rs10.50. The largest decline was noted in Wyeth Pakistan.

Traded volume showed a modest rise at 68m shares as compared to previous 62m shares, but losers managed to force a slight edge over the gainers at 110 to 101, with 76 shares holding on to the last levels.

Hub-Power again led the list of actives, firm by five paisa at Rs23.30 on 19m shares followed by PTCL, easy by the same amount at Rs17.30 on 9m shares, National Bank, up 55 paisa at Rs20.25 also on 9m shares, PSO, off 75 paisa at Rs140.45 on 7m shares and Telecard, lower 50 paisa at Rs12.95 on 5m shares.

Other actives were led by MCB, up 80 paisa on 3.440m shares, Sui Northern lower 10 paisa on 2.566m shares, ICI Pakistan, firm by 10 paisa on 1.981m shares, FFC-Jordan Fertilizer unchanged on 1.814m shares and PIA, up 25 paisa on 1.251m shares.

FUTURE CONTRACTS: PSO remained under pressure on the forward counter and shed in part its overnight gains. Both the July and the June settlements were marked down by Rs1.15 and Rs1.25 at Rs141.80 and Rs140.50, respectively, on 0.611m and 1.723m shares.