April 20, 2006	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 21, 1427

KARACHI, April 19: After a fairly promising opening aided by heavy covering purchases in the leading oil shares, stocks again finished lower on late selling in most of the pivotals. A bonus issue of 50 per cent by Pakistan Oilfields was on the higher side of the analyst predictions failed to pull the market from the current impasse.

Traded volume, which was on the lower side of the daily average again showed that investors were not inclined to sell at the falling prices amid predictions that the market would rebound after having met its technical demands being in an overbought position.

The KSE 100-share index suffered a fresh loss of 67.35 points at 12,048.11 as compared to 12,115.46 points a day earlier, reflecting the weakness of leading base shares, notably OGDC, Pakistan Petroleum and PTCL.

The early boost was attributed to the working results of Pakistan Oilfields, which came in for active bouts of buying and selling ahead of the board meeting. It touched the high and low of the session at Rs718 and Rs665, an erratic movement of Rs53 but failed to keep the market on the track owing to late selling.

Floor brokers said that the quarterly dividend–driven rally was expected to manifest itself in a bigger way during the coming sessions as board meetings of some of the leading companies were overdue.

“In the backdrop of a record rise in oil prices at $72 per barrel fuelled by Iran nuclear standoff, it appears pretty difficult to halt the market run-up at least for the near-term,” leading analysts said, adding “the fact that the index had almost stabilised itself above the crucial level of 12,000 points also points to a future robust market”.

Cement shares also rode the bandwagon after apparently having digested the negative fallout of duty free imports of the commodity to ease local prices on covering purchases at the lower levels, they added.

OGDC, which received massive battering overnight, again led the early market recovery ahead of its board meeting and market talk of over 41 per cent growth in its profits owing to higher international prices and local sales. Its management had already paid two interim dividends and another around 15 per cent may be announced for the third quarter.

Board meetings of other leading oil shares, notably Kot Addu Power Company are also due, which in turn will boost the market sentiment. But on the other hand third quarter earning of Rs1.63 billion or EPS at Rs37.34 by Shell Pakistan seems to have fallen below the investor expectations.

Minus signs again dominated the list under the lead of Gillette Pakistan and Unilever Pakistan, off Rs11.60 and Rs25, followed by Premier Sugar, Gatron Industries, Jahangir Siddiqui & Co, Attock Petroleum, Bata Pakistan, Gillette Pakistan and Grays of Cambridge, which suffered fall ranging from Rs7.10 to Rs11.60.

Some of the leading shares managed to put on fresh gains including AKD Securities and IGI Insurance, up by Rs12.20 and Rs13.23 respectively. Other prominent gainers were led by United Bank, Lucky Cement, Al-Ghazi Tractors, Frontier Sugar, Ghani Glass, Singer Pakistan, HinoPak Motors, Ghandhara Industries and Engro Chemical, up by Rs3.15 to Rs6.50.

Traded volume fell further to 328m shares from the previous 382m shares as losers maintained a strong lead over the gainers at 233 to 113, with 45 shares holding on to the last levels.

OGDC again led the list of actives, lower 25 paisa at Rs163.25 on 45m shares followed by Pakistan Oilfields, higher by Rs4.15 at Rs700.15 on 28m shares, Bosicor Pakistan, off 80 paisa at Rs32 on 21m shares, Pakistan Petroleum, off Rs5 at Rs291.50 on 20m shares, PTCL, lower 95 paisa at Rs64.75 on 16m shares, Lucky Cement, up by Rs3.15 at Rs124.85 on 14m shares and National Bank, lower Rs3.50 at Rs266.25 also on 14m shares.

Other actives included D.G. Khan Cement, off Rs1.35 on 13m shares, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, easy 45 paisa on 13m shares and Fauji Cement, lower 20 paisa on 11m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: Speculative issues on the forward counter also followed the lead of their counterparts in the ready section and generally fell under the lead of OGDC, off 75 paisa at Rs163.50 on 20m shares, Pakistan Oilfields, up by Rs2.05 at Rs704 on 17m shares and Pakistan Petroleum, lower Rs5 at Rs293 on 13m shares.

National Bank followed them, off Rs4 at Rs267.50 on 11m shares and D.G.Khan Cement, easy Rs1.05 at Rs126.40 on 10m shares. Others were modestly traded amid either way price movement.

DEFAULTER COS: Dandot Cement again came in for active support and rose by Re1 at Rs15 on 1.110m shares followed by Crescent-Standard Bank, off 55 paisa at Rs7.45 on 0.738m shares and Unity Modaraba, lower 20 paisa at Re1 on 0.200m shares. Some others were also actively traded.