26 February 2004	Thursday	05 Muharram 1425

KARACHI, Feb 25: Stocks on Wednesday gave another improved performance as investors covered positions on selected counters amid highly erratic price movements but the market lacked aggressiveness associated with a bull-run. The KSE 100-share index posted fresh rise of 10.14 points at 4,796.99.

The market sentiment in part was also influenced favourable by higher corporate announcements by the Bank of Punjab, Soneri Bank and PICIC, which came out with bonus shares at the rate of 25, 25 and 35 per cent respectively.

Price changes both ways were mostly fractional as most of the leading shares, notably PTCL, OGDC and some others recovered only 10 paisa from the previous losses, reflecting the prevailing inconsistency in investor perceptions about the future market outlook. Alternate bouts of buying and selling was hallmark of the entire trading.

The KSE 100-share index recovered another 10.14 points at 4,796.99 but ended well below the day's peak level of 4,814.00 on late selling and the absence of strong follow-up support.

Small investors and retailers were, however, conspicuous by their absence as they did not have the capacity to operate in a highly fluctuating market where price outlook was uncertain amid erratic movements.

Low trading volumes indicates their absence and they may not be back in the market until sanity returns to stock trading and their investment are safe, brokers said.

"Highly erratic movements of the index on average 70 points both ways reflects a tense battle of wits between the bulls and the bears", some analysts said "the bone of contention appears to be the index level of 5,000, which the former want to achieve and the latter do not". But on the other hand price movements even on the blue chips counters were mostly fractional.

A considerable decline in the badla rates (carryover rates) triggered a lot of covering purchases at the still lower rates on selected counters but the broader market was a bit shaky in the absence of falling institutional support.

Dividend news coming in regularly, notably from some leading bank shares, are well above the analysts' predictions and are generating a lot of fresh buying in most of low-priced shares.

"Interim working results of Pakistan Oilfields were, however, well below the market expectations and triggered a lot of selling in other energy shares for the last couple of sessions," analysts said what seems to cause a major sell-off in it was omission of widely rumoured interim dividend of 80 per cent".

Most of the leading shares ended further higher under the lead of Rafhan Maize Products, up by Rs15.10 on reports of higher interim earnings, followed by Siemens Pakistan, higher by Rs13 followed by Fateh Textiles, National Refinery, Atlas Battery and Arif Habib Securities, which posted gains ranging from Rs5 to Rs20.50.

Other good gainers were led by Clariant Pakistan, Mitchell's Fruits, Al-Ghazi Tractors, EFU Life and PSO, higher by Rs2 to Rs2.65. Prominent losers included Nestle MilkPak, which shed the overnight gain, off Rs18.50 followed by IGI Insurance, Yusouf Textiles, Clover Pakistan, Pak-Suzuki Motors, Sitara Chemical, Dreamworld, Al-Abid Silk and Gatron Industries Pakistan, which suffered fall ranging from Rs2 to Rs4.75.

Trading volume fell to 231m shares from the previous 314m shares but losers and gainers were evenly matched at 160 each, with 49 shares holding on to the last levels.

OGDC again topped the list of most actives, firm by 10 paisa at Rs50.30 on 43m shares, PTCL, steady also by the same amount at Rs39.60 on 23m shares, D.G.Khan Cement, up by 40 paisa at Rs46.05 on 18m shares, PIAC, higher by 25 paisa at Rs25.15 on 16m shares and Lucky Cement, up by 40 paisa at Rs26.45 on 12m shares, ICP SEMF, firm 10 paisa at Rs49.10 on 11m shares and PSO, up by Rs2.65 at Rs289.65 on 11m shares.

Other actives were led by KESC, up by 35 paisa on 9m shares, Dewan Salman, easy five paisa also on 9m shares and Maple Leaf Cement, off 45 paisa on 8m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: Trading on this counter was relatively slow in the absence of strong speculative demand from any quarter. PTCL rose by 12 paisa at Rs39.55 on 3m shares, PSO, up by Rs2.14 at Rs287.30 on 2m shares, Pakistan Capital Market Fund, easy five paisa at Rs9.80 on 1m shares and Sui Northern Gas, lower 35 paisa also on 1m shares.

DEFAULTER COS: Crescent Spinning came in for modest selling and fell by 25 paisa at Rs3.25 on 0.120m shares followed by Mukhtar Textiles, up by 35 paisa at Rs4.55 on 0.118m shares. All others were modestly traded.

DIVIDEND: Union Insurance Co, right shares at the rate of 46.591 per cent and Pakistan PTA, nil for the year ended Dec 31, 2003.