KARACHI, March 3: Stocks on Wednesday maintained uppish leaning as strong institutional support at dips did not allow investors to indulge in panic selling in the backdrop of Quetta killings and fears of its negative fall-out here.
The index posted a fresh gain of 13.47 points at 4,853.84.
But an air of uncertainty gripped the market as leading retailers were conspicuous by their absence and financial institutions kept the wheels moving in a lightly traded session.
Dividend news, notably from Millat Tractors, which came out with an interim dividend of 80 per cent, and 35 per cent bonus shares by PICIC were on the higher side of the market expectations, while final dividend of 25 per cent by ICI Pakistan did not enthuse investors.
After two days of closure, trading resumed on a shaky note as fears of violence dominated the underlying sentiment as investors stayed on the sidelines apparently awaiting the city reaction to the Quetta carnage. But as there was a relative calm, investors were back in the market and made fresh covering purchases on selected counters, allowing it to maintain a steady posture.
Energy shares, notably OGDCL and Sui Northern Gas and some blue chips on the other counters led the market resistance to further declines on active support at the dips. However, early selling only slowed down the market's upward thrust as late covering purchases at the dips allowed it to finish partially recovered from the day's lows on the strength of most of the pivotals.
In the similar situations as the prevailing one, investors do unload in part their long positions fearing retaliatory violence but it goes to underlying market strength that it digested confidently the immediate negative fallout of the killings.
Some of the leading institutional traders played a key role in keeping the morale of general investors in a good shape after having pumped huge amounts of cash in selected shares, although most of the retailers stayed out of the market.
Despite the murder of 25 persons and injuries to 150 in the Quetta incident, the KSE 100-share index managed to finish with a fresh modest increase of 12.05 points at 4,852.46 as compared to 4,840.37 at the last weekend.
"Positive outcome of the visit of a high-level business delegation to India and signing of a number of deals to boost bilateral trade was one of the factors that did not allow the investors to get panicky owing to the Quetta attack," analysts said.
Positive news from economic and privatization fronts were other aiding factors, reinforcing investor confidence in the market's firm stance in the weeks to come, they said.
Some of the shares currently under privatization, notably KESC and some other low-priced entities having a potential of capital appreciation as well as those whose board meetings are due during the current and next week, were actively traded on the higher side.
Prominent gainers were led by Abbott Lab, Rafhan Bestfoods and Fateh Textiles, which posted gains ranging from Rs10 to Rs26 followed by Central Insurance, Bolan Casting, Clariant Pakistan, Century Papers, Security Papers, Dreamworld, Burewala Textiles and Atlas Battery, up Rs4.50 to Rs9.45.
Lakson Tobacco, Gatron Industries, IGI Insurance and Arif Habib Securities topped the losers, off Rs4, Rs6.75 and Rs23.25, followed by Javed Omer, Gul Ahmed Textiles, Pakistan Tobacco after below market dividend of 10 per cent, Pakistan Refinery and Shell Pakistan, which fell by Rs2 each.
Trading volume suffered a sharp contraction as leading investors stayed on the sidelines, falling to 187m shares from the previous 233m shares, but gainers maintained a strong lead over the losers at 173 to 151, with 44 shares holding on to the last levels.
OGDCL topped the list of most actives, up by 95 paisa at Rs52.40 on strength of higher second quarter results, on 33m shares, followed by KESC, higher 65 paisa at Rs8.70 on 23m shares, Sui Northern Gas, higher by Rs2.70 at Rs56.75 on 17m shares, PTCL, lower 15 paisa at Rs39.70 on 14m shares, and PIAC easy 15 paisa at Rs24.95 on 11m shares.
Other actives were led by Hub-Power lower 20 paisa on 10m shares, Sui Southern Gas, up 85 paisa on 8m shares, Dewan Salman, easy 10 paisa on 6m shares, PSO, off Rs1.65 on 5m shares and ICI SEMF, lower 30 paisa also on 5m shares.
FORWARD COUNTER: Hub-Power came in for active selling and fell by 25 paisa at Rs37.30 on 3m shares followed by PTCL, easy 30 paisa at Rs39.80 also on 3m shares, Sui Northern Gas, higher by Rs2.25 at Rs56.60 on 2m shares and PSO, lower by 85 paisa at Rs286.60 also on 2m shares. Dewan Salman and some others also suffered fractional decline on stray selling.
DEFAULTER COMPANIES: Active trading was witnessed on this counter where some of the leading shares came in for strong demand under the lead of Crescent Spinning, up 45 paisa at Rs5.05 on 1.480m shares followed by Nazir Cotton, higher by 70 paisa at Rs4.65 on 0.736m shares.
Others actives included National Asset Leasing and Fidelity Bank, up 25 paisa and off 30 paisa at Rs3 and Rs9.60, respectively, on 0.197 and 0.260m shares.
DIVIDEND: ICI Pakistan, cash 25 per cent; PICIC, bonus shares 35 per cent; Pakistan Tobacco, cash 10 per cent; Resham Textiles, right shares 60 per cent; and Millat Tractors, interim 80 per cent.
