October 12, 2002	Saturday	Sha'aban 5, 1423

KARACHI, Oct 11: The initial election results failed to find favour with the investors as the post-election session witnessed panic selling amid fears of confrontation between the contenders of power leading to political instability. The KSE index fell by 62 points at 2,037.00.

There was no evidence of the pre-election buying euphoria as the market witnessed prices of blue chips falling like nine pins across the board amid an unprecedented panic, notably among the foreign investors and weakholders.

Bulk of the selling was confined to leading MNCs, including Shell Pakistan, Abbott Lab, Engro Chemical, ICI Pakistan, Nestle MilkPak, Unilever and BOC and others, which showed sharp fall ranging from Rs.3 to 6.75.

The unexpected initial election results were contrary to investors perceptions and general analysts prediction, which caused hasty selling amid fears of confrontation between the president and the new parliament and the consequent political turmoil. The KSE 100-share index shed 61.97 points or 4 per cent at 2,036.99 points.

“The visible popular public mandate for the anti-government parties and the failure of the widely speculated kings party, seems to have altogether changed the perception of political harmony,” says a leading analyst commenting on the post-election market reaction.

“Continuity of the previous economic reforms and financial policies is now of anybody’s guess at least for the near-term,” another said.

But saner elements apparently were not carried away by the post- election scenario and kept to the sidelines awaiting further developments on the political front. However,it was not possible for them to forestall panic selling from all and sundry and allowed the market fall to its realistic sustainable level.

Some other analysts said the pre-election market rise to the index level of 2,100 was speculative rather than real and those who were behind it got away with the booty after cashing in on the available margins of profit.

An idea of panic selling may well be had from the fact that all the leading shares fell in unison on persistent selling but there were not many buyers at the falling prices.

Big losers were led by Shell Gas, Packages, Shell Pakistan, PSO and Nestle MilkPak, which suffered fall ranging from Rs.4 to 6.75. Other prominent losers included Gatron Industries, Abbott Lab, Engro Chemical BOC Pakistan Clariant, Pakistan Attock Refinery, ICI Pakistan and several others, falling by Rs.2.20 to 3.10.

Among the leading gainers, Burewala Textiles, General Tyre, Fazal Textiles and Pak Reinsurance Company were leading, which rose by one rupee to Rs.44.25.

Trading volume fell to 139m shares from the previous 179m shares as losers forced a strong lead over the gainers at 179 to 25, with 42 shares holding on to the last levels.

Hub-Power topped the list of most actives, off 75 paisa at Rs.23.95 on 38m shares followed by PTCL lower 55 paisa at Rs.19.70 on 26m shares, PSO, off Rs.6.25 at Rs.193 on 12m shares, Engro Chemical, down Rs.3 at Rs.64.20 on 9m shares and Sui Northern Gas, easy 20 paisa at Rs.15.40 on 7m shares.

Other actives were led by KESC, lower 75 paisa on 3,232m shares, ICI Pakistan, off Rs.2.20 on 5m shares, FFC-Jordan Fertilizer, lower 45 paisa on 4.38m shares and Adamjee Insurance, off Rs.2.20 on 2.316m shares.

CLEARED LIST: Speculative issues on the forward counters also came in for heavy selling and generally finished lower under the lead of PSO, off Rs.4.55 at Rs.156.65 on 9m shares followed by Hub-Power, easy 70 paisa at Rs.24.05 on 8m shares, PTCL, lower 50 paisa at Rs.19.80 on 6m shares and Engro Chemical, off Rs.255 at Rs.64.80 on 1.517m shares.

DEFAULTER COMPANIES: Unlike the previous sessions trading on this counter was relatively slow as shares of only eight companies came in for trading under the lead of Custodian Modaraba, up Rs.1.45 at Rs.5.45 on 6,000 shares, followed by Automotive battery, unchanged at Rs.4 on 5,000 shares and Suzuki Motorcycles, easy 25 paisa at Rs.5.15 on 3,500 shares.