March 6, 2003	Thursday	Muharram 2, 1424

KARACHI, March 5: Stocks on Wednesday resisted fresh decline as higher interim dividend of 33 per cent by Hub-Power attracted a lot of short-covering on the blue chip counters putting the market back on the rails.

The market’s firm stance was also evident from an improved performance of the KSE 100-share index, which recovered 22.97 points and was last quoted at 2,469.99 as compared to 2,447.02 a day earlier, reflecting the strength of leading base shares.

“The Hubco payout for the half year ending June 30, 2003 is in line with the earlier predictions and was well-received as is reflected by the market’s snap rally,” says a broker adding “but whether the market could sustain the run-up will be witnessed during the next couple of sessions.” Earning per share comes to Rs2.49 as compared to previous Rs2.48.

But he fears the final could be much below the market expectations as the management has already received the last instalment of arrears from Wapda amounting to Rs1.2 billion, putting an end to fresh cash inflow from Wapda.

Final dividend by Bank of Punjab and Metropolitan Bank at 17.5 and 20 per cent respectively were also on the higher side of the market perceptions but the underlying sentiment is overshadowed by the external depressants.

Analysts said the falling daily volumes reflect that investors are too cautious to go beyond certain pre-determined limits amid fears that the looming war clouds on Iraq could take an ugly shape any time.

“There is no hope of a big breakthrough at this stage as both general investors and the financial institutions think twice before investing despite attractively lower rates,” they said.

No one could deny the fact that the market is still in a highly oversold position and needs a lot of covering purchases as negative external developments did not allow bargain-hunting at this stage.

“Dividend or yield-related buying appears to be on its way out and until institutional traders re-enter the market the trading may remain terribly sluggish,” predicts a leading broker.

Leading gainers were led by Shafiq Textiles, Pak-Suzuki Motors, Dawood Hercules, PSO and Arif Habib Securities, up Rs3.10 to Rs14.95. They were followed by Habib Sugar, Pakistan Oilfields, Shell Pakistan, Pak-Suzuki Motors, Telecard, Dreamworld and Clover Pakistan, up Rs1.50 to Rs3.45.

Losers included Packages, BOC Pakistan, Clariant Pakistan, Unilever Pakistan, Pakistan Reinsurance Co, Din Textiles, Sana Industries, Siemens Pakistan and Packages, off Rs1.20 to Rs11.90.

Trading volume fell to 120m shares from the previous 123m shares but gainers held a modest lead over the losers at 108 to 104, with 44 shares holding on the last levels.

The most active list was again topped by Hub-Power, up to 85 paisa at Rs35.85 on 61 million shares followed by PSO, higher by Rs7.25 at Rs196.25 on 22 million shares, PTCL, firm by 10 paisa at Rs21.05 on 9 million shares, Sui Northern Gas, up 45 paisa at Rs21.45 on 5 million shares, and Pakistan Oilfields, higher Rs2.45 at Rs169.00 on 3 million shares.

Other actives were led by Pak PTA, firm by five paisa on 3m shares, Telecard higher by Rs1.50 on 2m shares, FFC-Jordan Fertilizer, steady by 10 paisa also on 2m shares and MCB, lower 20 paisa on 1.201m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: Hub-Power came in for strong buying after the announcement of dividend and rose by 85 paisa at Rs35.90, the highest for the day on 15m shares.

PSO also attracted strong support and soared by Rs6.75 at Rs196.25 on 11m shares followed by PTCL, higher 15 paisa at Rs21.10 on 3m shares and FFC-Jordan Fertilizer, steady by 15 paisa at Rs10.65 on 0.634m shares. Others were traded modestly under the lead of Sui Northern Gas.

DEFAULTER COMPANIES: Active alternate bouts of buying and selling were witnessed on this counter under the lead of Custodian Modaraba, up 15 paisa at Rs2.40 on 34,500 shares.

Shares of over a dozen companies came in for trading, out of which Crescent Spinning was leading up 50 paisa at Rs3.50 on 21,000 shares and Mehran Jute, easy five paisa at Rs0.55 on 5,000 shares.