24 April 2004	Saturday	03 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, April 23: The KSE 100-share on Friday took another major dip as leading base shares fell like the house of cards from their overnight highs on massive selling , clipping 169 points or three per cent from it at the fag-end of the session.

Market capital also received a massive battering off Rs42.413bn at Rs1,454.641bn as compared to Rs1,497.054bn a day earlier, reflecting the weakness of OGDCL, PTCL and Hub-Power, being the massively-capitalized shares.

There was no immediate negative news expecting some rumours, which could intensify the bear-run at the weekend session, but panic unloading by the big ones was quickly followed by the weak-holders and the market crash for the second time during the week.

Opinions are now divided over the future outlook as the talk of the 6,000 index level is apparently fading under the weight of bear onslaught, but some are optimistic that financial traders could launch rescue operation any time by the next week despite higher badla rates and volume.

An idea of market's highly volatile stance may well be had from the fact that after opening higher by 15 points, the KSE 100-share index fell by 71 points, but again bounced back from the lows. But the afternoon session saw massive selling in some of the leading shares, including OGDCL, Hub-Power, PTCL and some others triggering sympathetic unloading from the other weak-holders.

The index finally received massive battering on the pattern of Wednesday's panic selling and fell by three per cent or 168.83 points at 5,406.98 as compared to 5,55.81 a day earlier.

The highly erratic price movements reflect some rethinking on the market's outstanding performance during the last about three months as a section of institutional traders seemed to be in no mood to further inflate their portfolio investment and played on both sides of the fence, some analysts think.

But others say next week's trading will be crucial as it will reflect how the big ones will operate. Whether or not they resume their covering operations will set the future market trend.

The omission of interim dividends by Hub-Power despite a hefty interim profit of Rs1.5 billion and Engro Chemical seems to have worked against the underlying sentiment as investors were expecting higher payout from their managements, brokers said.

Working results were announced by some of the leading cement companies, notably Lucky Cement and Maple Leaf Cement. The former showed a profit of Rs167m, 10 per cent higher than the previous figure, while the latter's interim earnings for the third quarter were a bit lower at Rs128 million.

However, a spat of other corporate announcements including from some leading companies is overdue and indications are that the current tempo of recovery could be sustained during the next week, they said.

"The payouts both from the energy and cement sectors and some other leading companies are due next week, which in turn, could restore the investor's confidence badly shaken by Wednesday's massive shakeout," analysts said.

But some others fear a heating up of the political scenario in the backdrop of an expected arrival of some leading former political leaders by early next month. Although minus signs dominated the list some of the leading shares managed to finish further higher, major gainers among them being Pakistan Resource Insurance, PNSC, Pak-Suzuki Motors, Premier and Noon Sugar, Lakson Tobacco, National Refinery, International Industries and Atlas Battery, up Rs3 to Rs6.50.

But the largest rise ranging Rs10.50, Rs11.80 and Rs31.10 was noted in Clariant Pakistan, Colgate Pakistan and Siemens Pakistan, respectively. Leading losers were led by Dawood Hercules, Shell Pakistan, and Javed Omer, off by Rs10.50 to Rs33.75, followed by PSO, Glaxo-SKF, Millat Tractors, Engro Chemical, Adamjee Insurance and several others, off Rs5 to Rs7.

Trading volume fell to 675m shares from the previous 711m shares as losers maintained a strong lead over the gainers at 214 to 111, with 45 shares holding on to the last levels.

OGDCL again topped the list of most actives, off Rs3.55 at Rs67.70 on 141m shares, followed by National Bank, up 80 paisa at Rs71.20 on 101m shares, Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim, lower 75 paisa at Rs21.50 on 48m shares, Hub-Power, easy 35 paisa at Rs35.50 on 42m shares, MCB, off Rs2.95 at Rs57 also on 42m shares and PTCL, lower by Rs1.10 at Rs42.85 on 41m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: PTCL also came in for active selling on this counter and fell by Rs1.10 at Rs43.10 on 6m shares followed by MCB, lower Rs2 at Rs57.05 on 5m shares and Hub-Power, off 75 paisa at Rs35.35 also on 5m shares.

Other major losers were led by PSO, off Rs7.45 followed by ICI Pakistan and Engro Chemical, which suffered fall ranging from Rs4.30 to Rs4.75 on active selling at the inflated levels.

DEFAULTER COS: Trading lacked normal trading interest barring Standard Bank, which came in for active selling, and was marked down by 50 paisa at Rs9 on 0.504m shares followed by Dandot Cement and Pangerio Sugar, lower 40 paisa and up 10 paisa at Rs7.10 and Rs4.50 on 0.260 and 0.146m shares, respectively.