January 13, 2007	Saturday	Zilhaj 22, 1427

KARACHI, Jan 12: Stocks on Friday staged a broad recovery on active short-covering in the leading bank and some other shares followed by positive reports, notably withdrawal of stamp duty on the share business for the next two years. The KSE 100-share index recovered 66.40 points at 10,425.46.

Apart from rumours of higher dividend and bonus shares from the leading banks, positive foreign reports about the earning capacity of this sector also triggered speculative buying by some of the leading foreign funds in some of them, brokers said.

That is perhaps why despite weekend selling on the oil counter at the higher levels, leading shares managed to finish with an extended gain under the lead of banking sector followed by active support at the dips.

Market talk of modest increase in interest rates any time as hinted some time back by the central bank governor and reports of higher earnings continued to inspire fresh buying in the leading bank shares. And added to it reports of merger and acquisitions of some smaller banks.

The KSE 100-share index was quoted sharply higher at 10,425.14, up by 66.40 points as compared to 10,359.06 a day earlier, reflecting the strength of leading base shares.

Barring few exceptions, much of the activity at the weekend session appears to be of jobbing nature as leading institutional traders and foreign investors were conspicuous by their absence, brokers said.

They said the next week could be very crucial for the direction of the market as by that time big players may have re-fixed their buying strategy for the couple of weeks.

But the weakness of the oil sector weighed heavily against the sentiment owing to falling world oil prices and the absence of foreign buying as they (foreign investors) are planning to buy shares of oil giants at further lower levels, stock analyst Ashraf Zakaria said.

“The current steep decline in world oil prices could well prove an attractive bait for the foreign investors as they would like to take big stake in the leading oil shares at the prevailing lower levels,” analyst Ahsan Mehanti said, adding “but it will substantially erode the existing capital gains of the local investors on the other hand”.

Top gainers included Lakson Tobacco, up by Rs19 followed by Rafhan Maize and Unilever Pakistan, higher by Rs47.25 and Rs50. Other good gainers were led by Thal Industries, Pakistan Petroleum, Pak-Suzuki Motors, National Bank and Colgate Pakistan, which rose by Rs6 to Rs9.

Losses on the other hand were mostly fractional barring Millat Tractors, Indus Motors, Callmate Telips, Bata Pakistan, Clover Pakistan, Gillette Pakistan and IGI Insurance, which suffered fall ranging from Rs2.90 to Rs8.

Trading volume rose to 159m shares from the previous 119m shares as gainers forced strong lead over the losers at 158 to 95 with 42 shares holding on to the last levels.

National Bank came in for strong support on positive foreign reports about earnings and was quoted higher by Rs7.50 at Rs260.50 on 32m shares followed by Bank of Punjab, firm by 75 paisa at Rs107.05 on 12m shares, Pakistan Petroleum, higher by Rs7 at Rs243 on 10m shares, PTCL, steady by five paisa at Rs48.10 on 10m shares, MCB, up by Rs2.60 at Rs264.80 also on 10m shares.

They were followed by Pak PTA, up by 40 paisa on 9m shares, OGDC, lower 50 paisa also on 9m shares, Engro Chemical, higher by Rs3.40 on 4m shares, PIAC, steady by 10 paisa also on 4m shares and Bank Alfalah, up by 65 paisa on 4m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: National Bank also led the list of actives on this counter, up by Rs7.50 at Rs261.75 on 13m shares, followed by MCB, higher by Rs2.80 at Rs265.75 on 7m shares and Pakistan Petroleum, up by Rs6.50 at Rs243.85 on 5m shares.

They were followed by Bank of Punjab, firm by 95 paisa at Rs107.80 on 4m shares and OGDC, easy 55 paisa at Rs116.85 on 3m shares.

DEFAULTER COS: Active trading was again witnessed on this counter as about a dozen shares came in for strong buying apparently on some positive news including rumours of management change.

Crescent Standard Bank was leading among them, up by 45 paisa at Rs5.40 on 1.713m shares followed by Harum Textiles, higher by 20 paisa at Rs2.55 on 1.297m shares.

Other actively traded among them were Saitex Textiles, Noorie Textiles, Nimir Chemicals and Unity Modaraba, which also finished higher on large volumes.