September 24, 2003	Wednesday	Rajab 26, 1424

KARACHI, Sept 23: Stocks on Tuesday remained under pressure and fell further but active short-covering in PTCL and Hub-Power limited the fall amid moderately active trading. The KSE 100-share index shed another 73.74 points at 4,138.19 and eroded Rs17.732bn from the market capitalization at Rs917.263bn.

Leading financial investors were again conspicuous by their absence, while some of the speculative traders and retailers indulged in alternate bouts of buying and selling without taking long positions and making larger commitments. The turnover figure was far below the daily average total of 450m shares.

The trading was apparently dominated by a possible MMA reply to the constitutional package on LFO, which was due to meet late in the evening. It will also chalk out future line of action in case it rejects the package.

The KSE 100-share index finished further lower by 73.74 points or 1.76 per cent at 4,138.19 as compared to 4,211.93 a day earlier despite the strength of leading base shares, notably PTCL and Hub-Power, which together hold a weightage of 43 per cent.

It has eroded more than 10 per cent during the last three sessions and indications are that it needs further pruning during the next couple of sessions as the perception of an impending political turmoil is expected to dominate the trading.

PTCL board, which meets on Wednesday could give pleasant surprise to the both analysts and general investors but any higher corporate announcement from it may not be in a position to put the market back on the rails in developing political situation.

Its share value early rose to Rs38.20 on active support on market talk of a higher dividend but late selling clipped a part of initial gains and it ended well below the day’s best bid at Rs37.85.

But on the other hand Pakistan Oilfields staged a smart recovery after having fallen by over Rs100 on post-dividend selling and rose by Rs2.40 on active short-covering at the lower levels.

“The market has risen beyond its financial mandate on speculative buying and is still in an highly overbought position and may ease further to its sustainable level”, analysts said.

Corporate announcements from most of the leading companies were on the higher side of the market perceptions but their positive impact is now almost absorbed and the market needs fresh stimulants to sustain

its current higher levels, they said.

But the developing political situation signals that the sailing on the share market may not be smooth in future as rigid positions taken by the contenders of power has pushed it right in the mouth of a volcano and the eroding values tells the plight of the market.

The clouds of political uncer-