July 26, 2003	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 25, 1424

KARACHI, July 25: Stocks on Friday suffered a mild reaction as retailers took profits at the inflated levels but the selling was well-absorbed at the dips indicating the current run-up is not overdone. The KSE index shed 7.47 points at 3,807.67.

There was nothing inherently wrong with the background news to which the slight reversal could be attributed excepting the weekend considerations, which generally attract selling from the weakholders and short-term investors.

The KSE 100-share index managed to finish above the crucial level of 3,800 at 3,807.67 as compared to 3,815.14 a day earlier, reflecting the weakness of leading base shares.

Total market capitalization also sustained a modest fall from its overnight high of Rs849.513bn to Rs848.475bn, off Rs1.038bn.

Analysts said the underlying sentiment remained uppishly inclined as bulls were not inclined to leave the arena for the bears despite being in a highly overbought position.

Investors are awaiting the outcome of the government-opposition parleys on Sunday and are expected to refix their priorities in the backdrop of political undercurrent, they said.

However, a section of leading brokers don’t expect any agreement on the contentious issues including the LFO in Sunday’s meeting as the positions taken by the contenders are too rigid and leave no room for a compromise, some others said.

“The market has to rely on its own positive fundamentals as it has in case to sustain the current levels”, says a broker adding “any deviation from the current positions at the index level of 3,800 could well mean a virtual collapse of the market”.

It was perhaps in this background that investors are inclined to make second line of defence to face any eventuality caused by the negative political undercurrent.

Most of the low-priced issues including those being traded on the defaulters list are attracting strong support at the lower levels as a section of investors is investing heavily in them for capital gains.

PSO again remained in the limelight on fresh heavy buying triggered by reports of the announcement of final bidding date for its sell-off to one of the three-short listed strategic buyers.

Cement shares, banking, insurance and auto and low-priced energy shares continued to attract active support at the current levels, signalling that investors are judiciously expanding their portfolio investment to avert undue risk, brokers said.

Plus signs managed to hold a modest edge over the losers, major gainers being PSO, Sitara Chemicals, Al-Abid Silk, IGI Insurance, Bhanero Textiles, Island Textiles, Colgate Pakistan, BOC Pakistan, National Refinery and Packages, which posted gains ranging from Rs5.10 to Rs11.10. There were several other good gainers also.

Losers were led by Treet Corporation and Siemens Pakistan, off Rs13 and Rs19 followed by Javed Omer, Pakistan Suzuki Motors, Fauji Fertilizer, Sapphire Fibre, Pakistan Gum Chemicals and Clariant Pakistan, off Rs2.25 to Rs5.90.

Trading volume fell to 300m shares from the previous 453m shares but gainers managed to hold a slight edge over the losers at 206 to 202, with 46 shares holding on to the last levels out of 455 actives.

PSO topped the list of actives, higher by Rs5.40 at Rs259.90 on 38m shares followed by PTCL, easy five paisa at Rs31.35 on 24m shares, KESC, lower 35 paisa at Rs8.05 on 19m shares, Hub-Power, easy 15 paisa at Rs39.20 also on 19m shares and Engro Chemical, up by 35 paisa at Rs90.25 on 18m shares.

Other actives were led by D.G.Khan Cement, easy 15 paisa on 13m shares, Dewan Motors, off 60 paisa on 11m shares, ICI Pakistan, up by 25 paisa on 10m shares, Lucky Cement, lower 50 paisa on 9m shares and T.R.G, up by 15 paisa on 9m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: PSO came in for strong speculative buying on reports that final bidding date for its sell-off is expected to announced by the next week. It ended higher by Rs5 at Rs259.50 on 3m shares.

But the most active among them was Hub-Power, lower 25 paisa at Rs39.15 on 10m shares followed by PTCL, easy by 10 paisa at Rs31.20 on 5m shares, FFC-Jordan Fertilizer, lower 36 paisa at Rs16.05 on 4m shares and Pak PTA, off 50 paisa at Rs11.70 on 2m shares.

DEFAULTER COMPANIES: Asset Investment Bank again came in for active support and rose by 30 paisa at Rs5.90 on 1.084m shares followed by Biafo Industries, firm by 15 paisa at Rs6.45 on 0.875m shares and Pangrio Sugar, higher by 70 paisa at Rs3.40 on 0.373m shares. Others including National Modaraba, unity Modaraba were also actively traded.