December 19, 2006	Tuesday	Ziqa'ad 27, 1427

KARACHI, Dec 18: The beginning of the rollover week further intensified the prevailing sluggishness on Monday as share values fell across-the-board on heavy selling by punters in leading base shares linked to it but there was stray support at the dips.

But a leading analyst attributed the sell-off to overleveraging on the CFS market that touched the high mark of Rs37 billion.

In the absence of normal buying support both from the financial institutions and foreign funds, broker worries about clearing found their way into unloading long of positions in some of the leading forward shares to settle the outstanding dues.

After hitting early the session’s high of 10,572.50, the KSE 100-share index posted a sharp decline of 210.46 points at 10,341.41, eroding Rs65 billion from the market capital at Rs2,876 billion. The KSE 30-share also suffered a massive decline of 297 points at 12,972.71.

All the leading base shares, some of them around their lower locks, finished sharply lower including National Bank, OGDC, MCB, Pakistan Petroleum and Pakistan Oilfields.

“Owing to the absence of many exit routes amid falling daily volumes, investors have no option to offload their long positions on the overvalued counters to settle their forward positions,” analyst Hasnain Asghar Ali said, adding “as there were not many buyers even at the lower levels the decline intensified”.Reopening of the forensic probe report and fresh demands made by the National Assembly committee added to the prevailing uncertainty as far as foreign investors are concerned. Attractively lower levels of leading shares failed to lure them despite potential of higher capital gains.

The market already a victim of falling demand for the last couple of weeks in the absence of strong financial and foreign support greeted the advent of rollover week in bad mood, he said.

A terribly low daily volume of well below 100m shares leaves hardly any room for even the most shrewd broker to play safe and most of them are, therefore, keeping to the sidelines.

“Although there are chances of default on the part of any broker, the rollover week could take away the steam out of the market generally powered by year-end buying, which is now nowhere around,” another analyst Ahsan Mehanti said.

Plus signs trailed far behind the minus ones barring Lakson Tobacco and Mustehkam Cement, which rose by Rs5.50 and Rs5.70, followed by Shaheen Insurance, Al-Abbas Sugar, HinoPak Motors and Sitara Chemical, up by Rs3.15 to Rs5. Others rose modestly.

Wyeth Pakistan and Siemens Pakistan were prominent among the losers, off Rs25 and 57.75 respectively. Other notable losers were led by Adamjee Insurance, IGI Insurance, Jahangir Siddiqui & Co and its fund, Abbott Lab, Clariant Pakistan, Gillette Pakistan, Sanofi-Aventis, Pakistan Refinery and Attock Petroleum were leading, which suffered fall ranging from Rs6.90 to Rs16.

Trading volume showed modest rise at 92m shares as compared to 71m shares at the last weekend as losers topped gainers at 255 to 70, with 29 shares holding on to the last levels.

OGDC led the list of actives, off Rs3.25 at Rs118 on 8m shares followed by National Bank, lower by Rs8.20 at Rs246.30 on 7m shares, PTCL, easy 55 paisa at Rs26.30 on 6m shares, PICIC, lower Rs1.15 at Rs68.85 also on 6m shares, Pakistan Petroleum, off Rs3.45 at Rs239.30 on 5m shares, MCB, lower by Rs3.50 at Rs255 on 1m shares.

They were followed by Bank of Punjab, off Rs2.65 on 5m shares, Bank Alfalah, lower Rs2.35 also on 5m shares, WorldCall Telecom, easy by 30 paisa on 4m shares and Pakistan Petroleum, off Rs5 on 3m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: National Bank also came in for active selling on the cleared list and fell by Rs8.65 at Rs246.85 on 7m shares, followed by MCB, off Rs3.90 at Rs255.60 on 4m shares and OGDC, lower Rs2.70 at Rs118.40 also on 4m shares.

Other actives were led by PICIC, off Rs3.50 at Rs66.50 on 3m shares and Pakistan Petroleum, lower by Rs3.90 at Rs239.80 on 2m shares. Others were modestly traded.

DEFAULTER COS: Trading activity on this counter was relatively slow owing to panic selling in the ready section. Prices generally showed fractional changes amid light volumes.

Unity Modaraba and Crescent Standard Bank were held unchanged at 55 paisa and Rs5.20 on 0.155m and 0.286m shares respectively.