November 18, 2006	Saturday	Shawwal 25, 1427

KARACHI, Nov 17: After higher opening, the share market on Friday finished lower as follow-up support turned shy owing to weekend considerations and some rethinking on the new risk management rules despite phasing out of their implementation up to December 2007.

Heavy selling in OGDC, one of the leading index heavy weights, followed by rumours of its proposed lower GDR share price late in the session also triggered active sympathetic selling but the chief worrying factor was conversion of in-house badla positions into the CFS from Saturday, says a leading stock broker Ashan Mehanti.

The initial run-up was attributed to active buying in the bank shares and other blue chips aided by positive reports that the SECP has decided to implement new risk management rules in phases, providing the much needed relief to the brokerage houses.

But the underlying sentiment in part was influenced bearishly amid fears of heating up of the political scenario after the resignation threat by the MMA MNAs as a protest against the passing of the Women Protection Bill on the ground that it was against the Islamic law.

But the opening was on the higher side as the KSE 100-share index rose modestly higher, but the in evening session, however, it saw a good bit of profit-selling in the leading bank shares and fell by 144.17 points at 10,705.87 as compared to 10,850.04 a day earlier, reflecting the weakness of leading bank and oil shares, which have 60 per cent weightage in the index.

Starting from Dec 4, the implementation of the new risk management rules under the VAR system would be completed by December 2007, giving enough breathing space to both the brokers and the investors, analysts said.

But some other fears the end of netting on the ready and CFS counters from November 17 may have a negative impact on stock trading and so may be the case with conversion of in-house badla into the CFS.

However, investors would decide whether to go by the positive market fundamentals or the technical norms currently knocking at the threshold of stock trading, another broker Ashraf Zakria said.

But the early weekend rally though terribly feeble suggests that the relief given by the SECP after phasing out of the new risks rules is welcomed by the investors and the brokers and it could be carried over to the next week.

Leading gainers were led by EFU Life and Packages, up by Rs9.75 and Rs9.80, followed by Sapphire Fibres, Mirpurkhas Sugar, Javedan Cement, PSO, Arif Habib Securities, Attock Petroleum and Sanofi Aventis, which posted gains ranging from Rs4.50 to Rs9.

Losers were led IGI Insurance and OGDC, off Rs10 and Rs6.30. They were followed by EFU General, MCB, Mustehkam Cement, National Refinery and Pakistan Petroleum, off Rs4 to Rs5.70.

Trading volume rose to 231.025m shares but gainers held a modest lead over the losers at 135 to 131 with 42 holding on to the last levels.

The most active list was topped by OGDC, sharply lower by Rs6.30 at Rs130.10 on 20.789m shares followed by Bank of Punjab, up by 75 paisa at Rs101.50 on 17.937m shares, National Bank, off Rs1.5 at Rs263 on 17.447m shares, PICIC, up by 60 paisa at Rs15.337m shares, Pakistan Oilfields, higher by Rs1.50 at Rs347.50 on 13.375m shares and PTCL, lower by 90 paisa at Rs47.05 on 11.651m shares.

Other actives were led by Callmate Telips, higher by Rs2.85 on 13m shares followed by Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, unchanged on 7m shares and Bank Alfalah, lower 20 paisa on 7m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: OGDC led the list of major losers and finished sharply lower by Rs5.55 at Rs130 on 13m shares followed by National Bank, easy by Rs1.75 at Rs263 on 11m shares and Pakistan Oilfields, higher by Rs1.25 on 6m shares.

They were followed by Pakistan Petroleum, off Rs5.50 at Rs237.80 on 5m shares and PICIC, higher by 70 paisa at Rs73 also on 5m shares.

DEFAULTER COS: Active trading was witnessed on this counter where Crescent Investment Bank came in for strong buying on takeover reports nd was quoted higher by Re1 at Rs5.50 on 5.438m shares followed by Crescent Modaraba, higher by 30 paisa at Rs1.70 on 0.335m shares.

Norrie Textiles and Unity Modaraba followed them, lower 40 paisa and up five paisa at Rs2.75 and 55 paisa respectively on 0.237m and 0.295m shares.