August 27, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-us-Sani 28, 1424

KARACHI, Aug 26: Stocks on Tuesday suffered fresh widespread fall at the inflated levels as a section of leading investors as well as weakholders indulged in renewed selling in most of the pivotals under the lead of energy and auto shares.

The KSE index fell by about 40 points at 4,342.20 points eroding Rs8.427bn from the market capitalization but managed to finish well above the day’s lows on late covering purchases at the lower levels.

The selling, which earlier assumed panic proportions, appears to be the fallout of Mumbai killings in bomb blasts and its likely negative impact on the improving Indo-Pakistan relations but late buying at the dips averted a major shakeout.

However, there was a panic in the market in the backdrop of Mumbai incident after the Indian officials blamed the banned Islamic student’s group for the bomb blasts. At one stage, the KSE 100-share index fell sharply by about 92 points or 3.5 per cent at 4,289.15.

Although it managed to finish well above the barrier of 4,300 at 4,341.99 on strong bull support at the dips, off 39.79 points the underlying sentiment remained highly shaky. The credit for putting it back on the rails largely goes to heavy buying in PTCL, which alone holds a weightage of 33 per cent in it.

While leading institutional traders awaited further developments on the Mumbai incident, there was a loud whispering in the rings that fallout of “massive killings of innocent people may have negative impact on the improving Indo-Pakistan relations.”

The opinions about the future direction are divided. Some say it is in for further correction owing to heating up of the local political scenario on the LFO issue, while some others claim the “best of the market is still to come and that is not that far.”

The market witnessed an avalanche of selling offers as both some leading bulls and weakholders tried to cash in on the available margin of profits, notably on the blue chip counters.

The sectorial decline was led by the energy and auto sectors followed by overvalued shares on the other counters, which came in for active selling and ended with sharp declines.

Minus signs again dominated the list, major losers being Unilever Pakistan and Wyeth Pakistan, which fell by Rs46 and Rs68 respectively. Others, which fell sharply included Pakistan Resource Co, Pakistan Refinery, Al-Ghazi Tractors Millat Tractors, Abbott Lab, Ferozsons Lab, Siemens Pakistan and PSO, off Rs4 to Rs6.10.

Some of the leading shares managed to finish higher under the lead of Lakson Tobacco, which continued to inspire strong post-dividend buying and rose by Rs11.05, the total gains during the last couple of sessions being Rs40.

Ahmed Hassan Textiles, Pakistan Tobacco, Indus Dyeing, Zaman Textiles, Mehmood Textiles, Gillette Pakistan and Clover Pakistan were among the other leading gainers, up Rs2.40 to Rs6.95.

Trading volume shrank further to 451m shares from the previous 459m shares as losers maintained a strong lead over the gainers at 236 to 117, with 48 shares holding on to the last levels.

PTCL topped the list of active, up five paisa at Rs38.30 on 78m shares, Fauji Cement, off 85 paisa at Rs13.50 on 63m shares, Hub-Power, off 40 paisa at Rs43.40 on 54m shares, Sui Northern Gas, up 25 paisa at Rs46 on 30m shares and D.G. Khan Cement, up 10 paisa at Rs41.70 on 21m shares.

Other actives were led by PSO, off Rs6.10 on 20m shares, Bosicor Pakistan, easy one rupee on 17m shares, Japan Power, higher by 65 paisa on 15m shares, Dewan Salman, off 90 paisa on 11m shares and KESC, lower 40 paisa also on 11m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: PSO also came in for active selling on the cleared list and fell sharply by Rs6.70 on 9m shares followed by Hub-Power off 60 paisa at Rs43.35 on 8m shares, PTCL, up five paisa at Rs38.35 on 6m shares, FFC-Jordan Fertilizer, lower 26 paisa at Rs17.25 on 2m shares and Sui Northern Gas, up 20 paisa at Rs46 on 2m shares.

Forward September settlements also followed the lead of maturing August contracts.

DEFAULTER COMPANIES: Biafo Industries came in for strong support and was marked up by one rupee at Rs9.15 on 2.409m shares followed by Apex Fabrics, up 55 paisa at Rs1.45 on 0.524m shares and Standard Bank, higher 40 paisa at Rs7.50 on 0.510m shares.

BOARD MEETINGS: Highnoon Lab, Shaheen Insurance, Askari General Insurance, on Aug 28, Atlas Honda, Capital Asset Leasing, Pakistan Services on Aug 30, Shahpur Textiles, Agri autos, Mustehkam Cement on Sept 1, Javed Omer on Sept 2.

DIVIDEND: Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan, cash maintained at 70 per cent, Yusuf Textiles, nine per cent interim, KSB Leasing, cash 3.5 per cent and International Multi-Leasing, nil.