June 17, 2006	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 20, 1427

KARACHI, June 16: Stocks on Friday finished with an extended gain as investors continued to build-up long positions at the attractively lower levels on the bank, oil and some other blue chip counters but volume figure did not reflect aggressive selling from any quarter.The interesting feature of day’s trading was that a good number of undervalued and inactive shares came in for active support under the lead of Pak PTA and Beema Pakistan on the perception that they would also follow the market’s general upturn ensuring handsome capital gains.

The KSE 100-share index appears to be virtually racing towards its crucial benchmark of 10,000 as in the morning session it consolidated well above the 9,000 points. But despite weekend profit-selling at the fag-end of the session it held on to initial rise, up by a fresh hefty gain of 429.65 at 9,607.11 points or 4.68 per cent as compared to overnight’s 9,177.46 points. The market capital also recovered another Rs106.560bn at Rs2,699.893bn.

Heavy covering purchases in the leading index shares, notably OGDC<.b>, PTCl, National Bank, Pakistan Petroleum, Pakistan Oilfields, and some other oil and bank giants did not allow bears to make even a weak showing.

“The downward revision of exit mechanism seems to have given the much needed push to the market as all the heavy weights finished above their upper locks, reflecting that the market’s inherent strength could work miracles in given situations,” a leading stock analyst Ahsan Mehanti said.

The sustained recovery was welcomed by all and sundry but what about those small investors and day traders who suffered massive losses in the early week bull-bear fight followed by manipulation.” All them provide in key role in providing to the market and the light volumes reflect their absence as they have no funds to cover their losses in the current run-up.”

Bulk of the support originated from the financial institutions in the form of year-end portfolio adjustments followed by leading brokers and sundry speculators and bargain-hunters, Ashraf Zakria another leading analyst said adding ”on technical grounds alone, notably the market’s highly oversold position could attract any amount of short-covering at the current lows.”

“The short-sellers in a real trouble after the ban on short-selling,” he said adding “they are making frantic efforts to cover positions but there are no sellers as was reflected by terribly low volumes.”

Plus signs again dominated the list, major gainers being Pakistan Services, Pakistan Oilfields, IGI Insurance, Millat Tractors, Pak-Suzuki Motors, Arif Habib Securities, Wyeth Pakistan and Unilever Pakistan, which posted fresh gains ranging from Rs15 to 73.

They were followed by Artistic Denim, National Refinery, Attock Petroleum, PSO, Atlas Honda, Dawood Hercules, and some others, up by Rs10 to 14.35.

Losses on the other hand were mostly fractional barring English Leasing, Dawood Bank, Trust Leasing, and Shahtaj Sugar, which suffered fall ranging from one rupee to Rs.295, reflecting the investors’ scramble for the low-priced shares.

Trading volume showed a modest rise at 162m shares from the previous 130m shares as gainers maintained a strong lead over the losers at 302 to 29, with 20 shares holding on to the last levels.

Pak PTA topped the list of most actives, up 70 paisa at Rs7.25 on 16m shares followed by National Bank, higher by 8.75 at Rs183.80 on 10m shares, OGDC higher by Rs5.95 at Rs124.95 on 8m shares, TRG Pakistan, firm by 55 paisa at Rs10.75 on 6m shares, D.G.Khan Cement, up Rs3.75 at Rs79.35 also on 6m shares, MCB, higher by Rs8.30 at Rs174.40 on 6m shares and Pakistan Petroleum, higher by Rs9.05 at Rs190.55 also on 6m shares.

Other actives were led by Beema Pakistan, steady by 35 paisa on 6m shares, Nimir Chemicals, firm by 35 paisa also on 6m shares and Hub-Power, up Rs1.10 on 6m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: OGDC came in for renewed support and finished higher by Rs6 at Rs126.05 on 7m shares, National Bank, higher by Rs8.80 at Rs184.95 on 4m shares and Pakistan Petroleum, up Rs9.1 at Rs191.70 on 3m shares.

D.G.Khan Cement followed them, firm by Rs3.80 at Rs79.85 on 2m shares and Pakistan Oilfields, higher by Rs5.25 at Rs320.30 also on 2m shares.

DEFAULTER COS: Active trading was also witnessed on this counter as investors covered positions in sympathy with the bull-run in the ready section. Crescent Investment Bank led the list, up 95 paisa at Rs5.35 on 0.416m shares followed by Asset Investment Bank, also higher by the same amount at Rs3.95 on 0.181m shares and Quice Foods, up five paisa at Rs3.70 on 227m shares.