KARACHI, Jan 18: The overnight run-up was halted on the stock market on Tuesday as investors took profit at the inflated levels but bulk of the selling was absorbed both at the rise and the dip.
After opening higher on spill over demand, the KSE 100-share index suffered a modest fall as pre-eid holiday profit selling manifested itself on the overvalued shares, which ensure an attractive bait of capital gains. It finally finished off 29.46 points at 6,603.55.
It may suffer fresh erosion on Wednesday, being the last session of week as the market will remain closed on Thursday and Friday owing to eid holidays and will reopen next Monday.
The selling was, however, orderly and never assumed an alarming proportion and was well-absorbed at the dips as the underlying sentiment remained uppishly inclined amid rumours of post-eid holiday rally towards the index level of 7,000 points.
Floor brokers said the announcement of IPO of Kot Addu Power Company (Kapco) from Feb 7, kept the investor interest alive as most of them did not opt to replacement selling to line up funds for the subscription to its shares. Its 10-rupee share is being offered at Rs30 per share in a minimum lot of 500 shares.
The overnight sharp increase in the share values of main gas distribution utilities - SSGC and SNGP - reflects that the broader market has absorbed the negative fallout of the suspension of gas supplies to some of the industrial sectors, brokers said. Both eased modestly on Tuesday in line with general profit-taking and news that Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Orga) has opposed their sell-off.
But analysts say production losses in some of the industries, notably fertilizer, which may suffer a loss of well over 40,000 tons if the supplies were not restored during the next week. Some of the textile and other units may follow suit. However, technically, the market did not react negatively to the tension in Sui area, Balochistan where Pakistan's major gas fields and purification plant are located, they said.
Leading gainers were led by Treet Corporation, Artistic Denim, and AKD Securities, up by Rs12 to Rs43.70 followed by Indus Dyeing, Sapphire Fibre, Berger Paints, Clover Pakistan, Pakistan Services, Parke-Davis and Nestle Milk Pak, which posted gains ranging from Rs5 to Rs9.
Losers included Gatron Industries, Atlas Honda and Siemens Pakistan, off Rs10 to Rs33.30 followed by Aventis, BOC Pakistan, PPL, Dawood Lawrence, Sana Industries, Faisal Spinning, Quetta Textiles and Javed Omer, which suffered fall ranging from Rs3.50 to Rs6.
Trading volume suffered a sharp contraction at 376m shares from the overnight's 521m shares but gainers and losers were about evenly matched at 190 to 196, with 36 shares holding on to the last levels.
The most active list was topped by Sui Northern Gas, lower 50 paisa at Rs61 on 74m shares, Sui Southern Gas, easy 35 paisa at Rs28.70 on 35m shares, OGDC, up 50 paisa at Rs77.50 on 27m shares, PTCL, lower 30 paisa at Rs52.50 on 22m shares and Bank of Punjab, up by 20 paisa at Rs71.70 on 21m shares.
Other actives were led by Lucky Cement, up by 30 paisa on 21m shares, National Bank, lower 55 paisa on 18m shares, Pakistan Oilfields, up by Rs3.10 on 16m shares, Bank Alfalah, higher by Rs2.60 on 16m shares and Nishat Mills, easy Rs1.25 on 14m shares.
FORWARD COUNTER: Fauji Fertilizer, PSO and Pakistan Petroleum came in for active selling and were marked down by Rs2.50 to Rs3.25 followed by Sui Northern and Sui Southern, which fell modestly 70 and 40 paisa respectively at Rs61.05 and Rs28.75 on 12m and 9m shares respectively.
OGDC suffered a decline of 40 paisa at Rs76.95 on 5m shares, while others played on both sides of the fence amid alternate bouts of buying and selling.
DEFAULTER COS: Crescent Board was actively traded on strong support and rose by Rs1.50 at Rs11.60 on 0.293m shares followed by Lafayette Industries, firm by 20 paisa at Rs3.50 on 0.156m shares.
