March 18, 2006	Saturday	Safar 17, 1427

KARACHI, March 17: Stocks finished the weekend session on a bullish note followed by active follow-up support on the oil and cement sectors, signalling that the market is confidentially heading toward its pre-reaction level possibly by the next week. The index gained another 262 points or 2.5 per cent at 10,951.08.

Both local leading institutional traders and some of the foreign funds tried to grab the floating stock of some of the base shares under the lead of OGDC, Pakistan Petroleum and D.G. Khan Cement, which in turn triggered sympathetic support on some other counters having potential of capital gains.

The KSE 100-share index maintained its accelerated recovery tempo boosted by fresh heavy local and foreign buying in the oil and cement shares aided by reports of higher interim earnings.

It posted a fresh sharp rise of 261.88 points or 2.5 per cent at 10,951.08 as compared to 10,689.20 a day earlier as leading base shares in the oil sector virtually raced to their pre-reaction levels under the lead of OGDC, Pakistan Petroleum and Pakistan Oilfields.

The sustained weekend run-up generally lead to an impressive opening next week as judicious blend of both local and foreign buying seems to be out to recoup the losses suffered during the last week’s sell-off, brokers said.

The other contributory aiding factor was National Bank’s annual accounts to be announced possibly by Monday also generated a lot of buying in it and some other leading bank shares enabling the market to consolidate last two sessions gains.

What seems to have generated a lot of speculative buying in its shares was market talk of 20 per cent cash dividend and an identical amount of bonus shares for the last year ended Dec 31, 2005. But later selling pushed it modestly lower from the session’s peak level of 271.25.

“This will be the last payout of one of the big corporate entities for the last year and after that the market would lack corporate stimulants,”one analyst said adding, ”whether or not the market will credibly perform on other news including interim results is unclear at this stage.”

Short-covering by the big ones alone on the attractively lower levels on the oil, cement and some other undervalued sectors would lead the market where it wants it to in the absence of interim reports, some others said.

Prominent gainers were led by Pakistan Oilfields and Siemens Pakistan, which posted fresh gains of Rs28.30 and 33.05, followed by Arif Habib Securities, Lakson Tobacco, Attock refinery, PSO, Attock Petroleum, Pakistan Petroleum, Dawood Hercules, and Pakistan Serivces, which posted gains ranging from 8 to 16.90. There were several other good gainers also.

Leading losers were led by Central Insurance and Gillette Pakistan, off Rs10 and 11.25. Others,which also fell included Callmate Telips, Ferozsons Lab, Security Papers, National Foods and HinoPak Motors, off Rs3 to 71.5.

Traded volume rose further to 404m shares from the previous 375m shares as gainers maintained a strong lead over the losers at 215 to 98, with 39 shares holding on to the last levels.

D.G.Khan Cement again led the list of actives, up Rs3.70 at Rs149.70 on 56m shares followed by OGDC, sharply higher by Rs6.85 at Rs144.25 on 49m shares, Lucky Cement, higher by Rs3.40 at Rs114.50 on 37m shares, National Bank, off Rs2 at Rs264.60 on 25m shares, PTCl, easy five paisa at Rs62.95 on 23m shares, Pakistan Petroleum up Rs11.55 at Rs262.75 on 21m shares and Pakistan Oilfields, higher by Rs28.30 on 15m shares.

Other actives were led by Fauji Cement, up 85 paisa on 21m shares, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, unchanged on 19m shares and Union Bank, up Rs2.80 on 12m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: OGDC led the list of actives, up Rs6.85 at Rs144.80 on 20m shares followed by MCB, up Rs10 at Rs225.50 on 16m shares, and D.G.Khan Cement, higher Rs3.45 at Rs150.20 on 14m shares.

Pakistan Petroleum followed them, higher by Rs11.55 at Rs263.30 on 14m shares and Lucky Cement, up Rs3.20 at Rs114.90 on 12m shares.

DEFAULTER COS: Prices on this counter showed fractional either changes amid slow trading. But Dandot Cement and Quice Food came in for active support and quoted unchanged for the former at Rs 11.80 on 0.230m shares, while the latter rose by 15 paisa at Rs7.25 on 0.136m shares.