December 15, 2006	Friday	Ziqa'ad 23, 1427

KARACHI, Dec 14: Trading volume on the stock market on Thursday shrank further to modest total of 72m shares as leading investors and financial institutions were not inclined to make fresh commitments even at the attractively lower levels owing apparently to reopening of forensic probe report on last year’s market crash.

What seem to have alarmed leading brokerage houses were initial negative comments on the report by some members of the national cabinet committee and most of the brokers were awaiting further developments on the issue.

But the KSE 100-share index did not toe the market’s general line of action and posted a marginal gain of 17.35 points at 10,604.44 as compared to 10,587.09 a day earlier as some of the leading base shares managed to finish modestly higher under the lead of Pakistan Petroleum and Pakistan Oilfields.

The KSE 30-share index on the other hand suffered a fresh modest fall of 9.13 points at 13,380.82 on selling in some of the leading base shares.

Although volume figure failed to show any improvement, analysts said, the current lower levels on the banking and oil counters could attract a lot of short-covering by local and foreign investors during the next week and added to it would be year-end portfolio adjustments by the financial institutions.

Fears that the cabinet committee means business and may name the market manipulators could have negative impact on stock trading and leading punters kept to the sidelines, brokers said.

News from the Callmate Telips episode were encouraging amid loud whispering that settlement formula had been finalised which was said to be acceptable to the parties involved in it, they said.

“Oil shares did react positively to the news of new oil and gas finds in some of the areas but other negative factors including high inflation over 8 per cent worked against the sentiment,” analysts said.

Among the gainers Attock Petroleum and Siemens Pakistan were prominent, up by Rs8.50 and Rs20 followed by Sapphire Fibres, EFU Life, Clariant Pakistan, Javed Omer & Co, HinoPak, IGI Insurance, Jahangir Siddiqui Capital and Gillette Pakistan, which posted gains ranging from Rs3 to Rs7.80.

Losers were led by Rafhan Maize Products and Wyeth Pakistan, off Rs18 and Rs50. Bolan Casting, Premier Sugar, Dawood Hercules, Sitara Chemicals, Clover Pakistan, Central Insurance and Grays of Cambridge followed them, off by Rs3 to Rs9.60.

Trading volume fell further to only 72m shares as compared to 81m shares a day earlier as gainers again trailed far behind the losers at 137 to 181, with 40 shares holding on to the last levels.

Pakistan Petroleum led the list of actives, up by Rs1.95 at Rs244.45 on 9m shares followed by PTCL, lower by 85 paisa at Rs47.30 on 7m shares, National Bank, easy by 50 paisa at Rs258.50 on 5m shares, PICIC, up by 30 paisa at Rs70.90 also on 5m shares, Pakistan Oilfields, higher by Rs1.05 at Rs365.80 on 3m shares and MCB, up by 25 paisa at Rs261.45 also on 3m shares.Other actives were led by WorldCall Telecom, up by 45 paisa on 4m shares, Javed Omer Co, higher by Rs3.10 on 3m shares, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, steady by five paisa on 2m shares and Sui Southern Gas, easy 25 paisa also on 2m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: National Bank came in for fresh pruning and was marked down by 20 paisa at Rs260 on 5m shares, Pakistan Petroleum, up by Rs1.55 at Rs244.95 on 3m shares and OGDC, higher by Rs1.10 at Rs121.35 on 2m shares.

They were followed by PTCL, lower by 65 paisa at Rs47.70 on 2m shares and MCB, off 75 paisa at Rs261.75 also on 2m shares.

DEFAULTER COS: Active trading was witnessed on this counter where some of current actives came in for support and rose under the lead of Crescent Standard Bank, up by 20 paisa at Rs5.45 on 0.601m shares followed by Norrie Textiles, lower by 20 paisa at Rs4.10 on 0.133m shares and Unity Modaraba, easy 10 paisa at 80 paisa on 0.131m shares.

Suzuki Motorcycles followed them, up by Re1 at Rs20.10 on 0.124m shares and Pangrio Sugar, higher also by Re1 at Rs8 on 0.118m shares. Others were modestly traded.