April 22, 2006	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 23, 1427

KARACHI, April 21: Heavy weekend selling in leading oil and bank shares on Friday kept the bulls on their toes all the time, but they managed to save the market crash after making strong covering purchases at the lower levels later. All the active blue chips finished sharply lower amid lower locks despite late recovery.

All eyes remained focused on the board meeting of OGDC, one of the index heavy weights, which in bourse parlance could make or mar the market if bears opt for a big catch until the announcement of Rs2.25 per share cash dividend, analysts said.

The KSE 100-share index, therefore, turned in a highly erratic movements amid alternate bouts of buying and selling ahead of OGDC board meeting and conflicting reports about the dividend.

After hitting the session’s low at Rs157.50 on heavy selling it managed to finish fully recovered at Rs162.75 after the announcement of third quarter payout of Rs2.25 per share. It had already paid an interim dividend of 30 per cent.

An idea of the market’s highly volatile performance may well be had from the fact that the index at one stage was off by 270 points breaching through the barrier of 12,000 but managed to finish well above the crucial level at 12,007.60, off 68.15 points. It touched the day’s lowest and highest 11,802.86 and 12,130.01 points.

Heavy selling in OGDC also dragged down all the leading oil shares, notably Pakistan Petroleum, Pakistan Oilfields and leading bank shares but closing was well above the session’s lows on active covering purchases at the dips.

There was a scare and confusion all around during the morning session reinforcing the general perception that the market may face fresh selling on the overvalued counters but revival of institutional demand saved the situation, brokers said.

“There was nothing bad in the background news to which the early sell-off could be attributed,” some analysts said “but big ones made it look so spreading scare among the day traders and genuine investors.”

“The worst seems to be over as next week’s board meetings of some of the leading companies are expected to drive bears out of the market leading to positive changes in the market psychology,” some others said.

They said the weakness of leading oil shares, including Shell Pakistan and PSO, Pakistan Petroleum, Pakistan Oilfields, and leading banks including MCB and National Bank weighed heavily against the underlying sentiment but their lower levels now ensure higher capital gains.

Unilever Pakistan and Nestle MilkPak were leading among the gainers, up Rs59 and 41, followed by EFU General, Mustehkam Cement, National Foods, Pakistan Hotels, Ghandhara Industries and Lakson Tobacco, up Rs5 to 14.50.

Prominent losers were led by Attock Refinery and Attock Petroleum, off Rs15 and 8.20 respectively. Others which followed them included Arif Habib Securities, MCB, JWD Sugar, PSO, Pakistan Petroleum, Indus Motors, and Ghani Glass, which suffered a fall ranging from Rs5.75 to 8.20.

Traded volume fell further to 269m shares from the previous 303m shares as losers forced a strong lead over the gainers at 200 to 116, with 41 shares holding on to the last levels.

OGDC was again actively traded, easy five paisa at Rs162.55 on 36m shares followed by Fauji Cement, up 50 paisa at Rs25.30 on 23m shares, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, off Rs1.35 at Rs39.90 on 19m shares, Pakistan Petroleum, off Rs8 at Rs281 on 15m shares, MCB, lower Rs5.75 at Rs252.50 on 13m shares, National Bank, off Rs 3.40 at Rs265.10 on 11m shares.

Other actives included D G Khan Cement, off Rs3.70 on 12m shares, Bank of Punjab, lower Rs4.35 on 10m shares and Lucky Cement, off Rs1.50 on 9m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: OGDC also remained under pressure on the cleared list and was marked down by Rs1.95 at Rs162.55 on 20m shares, followed by Pakistan Oilfields, lower by Rs 2.55 at Rs683.50 on 12m shares, and Pakistan Petroleum, off Rs8.45 at Rs281.50 on 10m shares.

D G Khan cement followed them, lower by Rs4.65 at Rs121.75 on 8m shares and National Bank, easy Rs3.20 at Rs266 on 7m shares.

DEFAULTER COS: Dandot Cement came in for renewed support and was quoted further higher by 95 paisa at Rs16.95 on 0.476m shares, while others were modestly traded amid either-way fractional price changes.