KARACHI, March 7: Stocks on Tuesday recovered from the overnight lows as institutional traders and leading brokers covered positions at the lower levels, but the broader market lacked normal support and stayed weak.

The market may take some more days to fully recover from the Monday’s shock as a formidable section of investors is in two minds about its future direction and did not ride the bandwagon, analysts said.

After opening lower, the KSE 100-share index managed to close partially recovered from the overnight lows on strong support in leading base shares at the attractively lower levels.

The index finished the session with a gain of 137.94 points or 1.26 per cent, close to the day’s peak level at 11,085.03 as compared to the previous 10,947.09 points, as leading base shares ended recovered from the previous lows amid upper locks.

The opening was, however, not that encouraging as early panic spilled over from the Monday’s massive plunge dominated the trading and it showed again highly erratic movements within 10,768 points on the lower and side and 11,086 on the higher, a gap of 318 points. But mid-session saw the return of bulls followed by partial recovery.

National Bank, MCB, OGDC, DG Khan Cement, PTCL and some others attracted bulk of the covering purchases and led the market to a viable recovery, which is expected to be extended until the market fully recovers its Monday’s loss. Oil and cement shares were in the forefront of market trend setters.

But foreign funds remained conspicuous by their absence apparently anticipating a further fall in prices and to cover positions at the further lower, but leading institutional traders reversed the trend after their strong presence on selected counters, analysts said.

The market has still to go a long way to recover the overnight loss of Rs130 billion, but as the fundamentals are positive it could be recovered during the next couple of sessions, they predicted.

“The recovery should have been more pronounced but adverse comments on President Bush’s visit kept general investors in two minds about the future direction of the market and they mostly played safe,” the analysts added.

Leading gainers were led by National Bank and Pakistan Refinery, up Rs12.35 and Rs14.50, respectively, followed by Pakistan Oilfields, Clariant Pakistan, Mari Gas, Lucky Cement, Adamjee Insurance, DG Khan Cement, PSO and MCB, up Rs6.10 to Rs11.95.

Losers included Unilever Pakistan and Callmate Telips, off Rs15.00 and Rs18.55, respectively. Other prominent losers were led by Fazal Textiles, Nishat Chunian, Gillette Pakistan, Zulfiquar Industries, Dreamworld, Dawood Hercules, National Foods and Shezan International, off Rs6 to Rs10.10.

Trading volume remained light owing to cautious buying, rising to 355m shares from the previous 331m shares but losers maintained a modest lead over gainers at 176 to 155, with 41 shares holding on to the last levels.

The most active list was topped by DG Khan Cement, higher by Rs7.15 at Rs154.30 on 56m shares, National Bank, up Rs12.35 at Rs305.40 on 36m shares, OGDC, firm by Rs2 at Rs139.80 on 33m shares, Lucky Cement, up Rs5.45 at Rs114.45 on 29m shares, MCB, higher Rs11.95 at Rs251.75 on 15m shares, Callmate Telips, off Rs18.55 on 11m shares, and Pakistan Petroleum, lower Rs2.20 at Rs274.75.

Other actives were led by Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim, firm by 70 paisa on 20m shares, PTCL, steady by Rs1.25 on 13m shares, and Fauji Cement, up 80 paisa also on 13m shares.

FORWARD COUNTRER: National Bank led the list of actives on this counter, higher by Rs11.85 on 18m shares, followed by DG Khan Cement, up Rs6.75 at Rs156.35 on 17m shares, and Lucky Cement, firm Rs5.50 at Rs116.40 on 12m shares.