KARACHI, April 26: Stocks on Monday turned mixed as investors played on both sides of the market ahead of board meetings of some leading companies including PSO and OGDC
during the next couple of sessions and market talk of higher interims. The KSE 100-share index recovered 8.95 points at 5,415.93.
There was, however, no panic, which was witnessed at the fag-end of the last week as some of the institutional traders covered positions on selected counters but day traders kept to the sidelines most of the time as no one among them was inclined to be a part of the speculative activity.
The market sentiment in part was influenced favourably by some positive developments on the corporate front including board meetings of some of the mega companies before the current month is out.
The chief of the Central Board of Revenue met the KSE highups yesterday and discussed with them various taxation problems being faced by them and hinted at some reliefs in the new national budget including tax exemption on capital gains for another five years to sustain the current stock market buoyant mood.
The tax exemption on capital gains has always been a major demand of the stock investors and the positive impact of the extension will be visible during the next couple of sessions after bears announce their retreat.
The KSE 100-share index, however, again showed highly erratic movements as bulls and bears fought to outwit each other. It, therefore, fell by 78 points during the mid-session after rising earlier 15 points but managed to finish mostly higher at 5,415.93, up 8.95 points over the weekend close.
Although the rally was too feeble to reflect that the technical correction is overdone, the pause certainly indicates that bulls have decided to fight back to gain upperhand. "The current volatility is essentially being caused by the big ones ahead of OGDC and PSO interim results in an apparent effort to push their prices lower and then to pick them up," analysts said.
Leading financial stock traders are indulging in alternate bouts of buying and selling in them massively to spread scare among the genuine investors to lower them into their selling net, they said adding "long-term holding by them has caused shortage of free float them."
The board meeting of the PSO and OGDC are due to be held tomorrow and on April 28, respectively, which are expected to allow the bulls to make their presence again felt as interim profits of both are reported to be on the higher side.
But whether or not they come out with interim payouts could prove a trend-setter for the near-term market direction, brokers said. Most of the overvalued shares, notably in the cement and energy sectors again witnessed a lot of pruning and so did some of the blue chips on the other counters.
Although minus signs again dominated list, some of the leading shares came in for active support and recovered from the previous lows, leading gainers among them being Noon Sugar, Lakson Tobacco, Goodluck Industries, Reckitt and Benckiser, Unilever Pakistan, EFU Life and Colgate Pakistan, which posted gains ranging from Rs5 to Rs13.
Losses on the other hand were mostly fractional barring Clover Pakistan, Pak-Suzuki Motors, Burewala Textiles, Dawood Hercules, Park-Davis and Javed Omer, off Rs4 to Rs28.40.
Trading volume fell to 483m shares from the previous 675m shares as leading investors stayed on the sidelines awaiting fresh corporate announcements by some leading companies. Losers maintained a fair lead over the gainers at 193 to 130, with 46 shares holding on to the last levels.
OGDC topped the list of most actives, off 90 paisa at Rs66.90 on 63m shares followed by DG Khan Cement, up 35 paisa at Rs57.50 on 51m shares, Fauji Cement, higher 45 paisa at Rs15.80 on 48m shares, National Bank, steady by five paisa at Rs71.25 on 44m shares, Chakwal Cement, up Rs1.50 at Rs8.90 on 42m shares, PTCL, up 35 paisa at Rs.43.30 on 26m shares and Hub-Power, higher by 40 paisa at Rs35.90 on 22m shares.
Other actives were led by Nishat Mills, firm by 20 paisa at Rs54.35 on 18m shares, MCB, off Rs1.70 on 14m shares and Lucky Cement, off Rs1.85 on 13m shares.
FORWARD COUNTER: Hub-Power came in for active support, up 63 paisa at Rs35.98 on 5m shares followed by Sui Northern Gas, higher by Rs1.05 at Rs67.45 on 4m shares, PTCL, up 20 paisa at Rs43.30 also on 4m shares, and PTCL, firm by 20 paisa at Rs43.30 also on 4m shares.
PSO on the other hand staged a smart recovery at Rs274.50, up Rs2.75 on 3m shares and FF Bin Qasim Fertilizer, up 25 paisa at Rs21.95 also on 3m shares. ICI Pakistan also rose by Rs1.45 at Rs83.75, while MCB fell by Rs1.80 at Rs55.25.
DEFAULTER COS: Mehr Dastgir Textiles led the list of actives on this counter, one rupee at Rs7 on 0.472m shares followed by Standard Bank,steady by 30 paisa at Rs9.30 on 0.371m shares and Biafo Industries, up 20 paisa at Rs10.50 on 0.140m shares.
DIVIDEND: Adamjee Insurance, bonus shares at the rate of 15 per cent for the year 2002 and 2003, Guardian Modaraba, right shares of 50 per cent.
