November 28, 2006	Tuesday	Ziqa'ad 6, 1427

KARACHI, Nov 27: Stocks on Monday ran into technical selling at last week’s inflated levels but the two-way activity was relatively slow as was reflected by sharp fall in the turnover figure. The KSE 100-share index fell by 120.49 points at 10,750.41 owing to the weakness of OGDC and some other pivotals.

As was expected that the activity would gather momentum during the current trading week aided by positive news from the corporate front, the absence of leading players for no apparent bearish reason weighed heavily against the underlying sentiments. Price changes were mostly fractional.

After resuming trading on a fairly steady note, Pakistani stocks suffered a mid-session reversal apparently on snap technical selling in most of the leading base shares.

The KSE 100-share in early trading was modestly higher by 40 points at session’s peak level of 10,909.40, but late selling pushed it down to finish around the lowest for the day at 10,750.41 as leading base shares including OGDC, National Bank, PTCL and some others remained under pressure.

The KSE 30-share index fell by 91.53 points at 13,497.49 as some of the leading base shares remained under pressure on profit-selling.

Essentially, it was the weakness of OGDC, which is currently holding roadshows prior to its global depository share floatation on the London Stock Exchange, owing perhaps to conflicting reports about the fixation price of GDSs, Ahsan Mehanti said, adding “the fear of massive offloading of 15 per cent government’s stake to raise about $1.5 billion could flood the market leading to further weakening of its share value”.

But some others said it was a broad technical correction which engulfed the entire blue chip counter and predicted the rebound is possible even on Tuesday.

They apparently based their perception on the objective background news on the corporate front, notably higher earnings by cement, bank and oil sectors.

“The MMA resignation threat is still far away and investors ignored it for the time being and followed the market fundamentals,” analyst Hasnain Asghar Ali said, adding “the uncertainty about the OGDC share price will be over shortly and as one of the market leaders, it will take the market along with in the plus territory”.

Meanwhile, leading brokerage houses are said to be busy in preparing replies to the SECP notices on future sales beyond their limits but that is not considered a market depressant now.

However, there were some fears among the brokers about the new risk management measures, which would be enforced progressively from the next month, brokers said.

Leading gainers were led by Gillette Pakistan, AKD Securities and Shell Gas, which posted gains ranging from Rs4.05 to Rs10.90 followed by Javed Omer, Mari Gas, Murree Brewery and Callmate Telips, which rose by Rs2.95 to Rs3.80.

Prominent losers included Indus Motors, Nestle Pakistan and Wyeth Pakistan, which posted losses of Rs9.20 to Rs67.50, followed by United Bank, IGI Insurance, OGDC, HinoPak Motors and Sapphire Textiles, off Rs3 to Rs4.

Trading volume showed sharp contraction in the absence of leading financial investors falling to 138m shares from the previous 237m shares as losers forced a comfortable edge over the gainers at 165 to 136, with 48 shares holding on to the last levels.

OGDC led the list of actives, off Rs3.40 at Rs129.95 on 14m shares followed by Faysal Bank, lower 40 paisa at Rs66.35 also on 14m shares, National Bank, off Rs2.90 at Rs276 on 12m shares, PICIC, lower Rs1.95 at Rs76 on 10m shares, Bank Alfalah, easy 10 paisa at Rs49.55 also on 10m shares, Bank of Punjab, lower 65 paisa at Rs106.30 on 8m shares and PTCL, off 65 paisa at Rs48.20 on 7m shares.

Other actives were led by Pakistan Oilfields, easy 40 paisa on 5m shares, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, lower 15 paisa on 3m shares and Callmate Telips, higher by Rs3.80 also on 3m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: OGDC also attracted selling on the cleared list and was marked down by Rs3.15 at Rs129.35 on 9m shares followed by National Bank, off Rs3 at Rs278 on 6m shares and Faysal Bank, easy 30 paisa at Rs67 on 4m shares.

PICIC followed them, lower by Rs2.73 at Rs76.10 on 4m shares and MCB, up by 75 paisa at Rs257.30 on 3m shares. Others were modestly traded.

DEFAULTER COS: Norrie Textiles came in for strong support and led the list of actives, up by 95 paisa at Rs6.85 on 1.077m shares followed by Crescent Investment Bank, lower by 35 paisa at Rs5.35 on 0.559m shares and Unity Modaraba, steady by five paisa at Rs0.55 on 0.150m shares.