November 15, 2002	Friday	Ramazan 9, 1423

KARACHI, Nov 14: Stocks on Thursday failed to sustain the initial buying euphoria generated by reports of summoning of the National Assembly session and positive signals about the formation of government at the centre but the on-balance closing was steady.

“The clouds of political uncertainty are steadily fading after the calling of National Assembly session,” says a leading stock analyst adding “sanity is expected to return to post-election deadlock after PML-Q and MMA form government.”

After rising sharply higher by 32 points at 2,297.28 earlier and at one stage it appeared certain that it is poised to breach through the barrier of 2,300 but the mid-session heavy institutional selling pushed it down from the peak level. The KSE 100-share index finally finished with a modest rise of 4.57 points at 2,269.96 as compared to previous 2,265.39 points.

Massive battering received by the PSO on the forward counter and its spillover to the ready counter trimmed the index gain. Over 16m shares changed hands in forward trading in PSO.

Some of the market’s basic fundamentals including higher corporate earnings and dividend yields and the sell-off of PSO also appear to be at work never allowing investors to leave the arena.

This perception is well-reflected in the performance of the KSE 100-share index, which, after having hit the low of 2,295 a couple of sessions earlier, is again heading for settling above the recently breached psychological barrier of 2,300 points.

“The market seems to have received a major boost from the idea of fading political deadlock as the calling of National Assembly session tells that the way for the formation of government has been cleared,” analysts said.

The acceptance by Iraq of the UN conditions about the inspection of its weaponry sites, which has deferred the possibility of US attack at least for the near-term was also a positive development and proved a supporting factor allowing the market to extend its run-up, they added.

Most analysts predict some technical corrections notwithstanding, the direction of the market now appears to be on the higher side as future course of political events is expected to be in line with the official thinking.

“The charm of sell-off of some big public sector units including PSO, PTCL and Sui Northern Gas is there and once the new political government is in place the process could get the needed boost,” they said.

Almost all the high-profile issues and some of the leading second-liners remained in strong demand and ended further higher, although bulk of the support again remained confined to energy, auto, chemical and some leading shares on other counters.

Big gainers were led by Pakistan Paper Products, General Tyre, Pakistan Refinery, Pak-Reinsurance Co and Wyeth Pakistan, up by Rs2.30 to Rs29, followed by Blessed Textiles, Faisal Spinning, Shell Gas, Century Papers, Packages, on reports of kinoo export in cartons, and some others, up by Rs2 to Rs2.15.

Losers were led by Bestway Cement, Crescent Steel, Bata Pakistan, Sapphire Textiles, PSO, Sapphire Fibre, Rafhan Maize and Dawood Hercules, off Rs1.45 to Rs5.

Traded volume soared to 249m shares from the previous 153m shares, although minus signs managed to force a slight edge on the plus ones at 120 to 114, with 52 shares holding on to the last levels.

Hub-Power led the list of most actives, up by 15 paisa at Rs26.80 on 52m shares followed by FFC-Jordan Fertilizer, firm by 10 paisa at Rs8 on 30m shares, PTCL, steady also by the same amount at Rs21.80 on 28m shares, National Bank, higher by 50 paisa at Rs26.60 on 21m shares, PSO, off Rs2.75 at Rs193.25 on 18m shares, MCB, firm by 10 paisa at Rs34.20 on 8m shares.

Other actives included Pak PTA, higher by 55 paisa on 19m shares, Dewan Salman, steady by 15 paisa on 12m shares and Engro Chemical, off 35 paisa on 6m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: PSO came in for active profit-selling at the inflated level and finished sharply lower by Rs3.75 at Rs193.90 on 16.261m shares followed by Hub-Power, up by 15 paisa at Rs26.95 on 9.213m shares, PTCL, firm by five paisa at Rs21.85 on 4.438m shares, and Sui Northern Gas, easy 10 paisa at Rs17.50 on 3m shares.

DEFAULTER COMPANIES: Shares of over a dozen companies came in for trading, most active among them being Crescent Steel, easy five paisa at Rs3.10 on 11,000 shares followed by Suzuki Motorcycles, lower 10 paisa at Rs7.05 on 5,500 shares and Bela Automotive, up by 20 paisa at Rs2 on 4,000 shares. Some others were also actively traded.