February 16, 2007	Friday	Muharram 27, 1428

KARACHI, Feb 15: Share market on Thursday remained unsettled as investors were not inclined to take fresh positions at the falling prices in the absence of institutional traders and foreign funds.

Active selling in the leading cement shares, notably Lucky Cement and D.G. Khan Cement followed by tussle over the selling prices at the consumers end also worked against the underlying sentiment.

Highly erratic movements of the KSE 100-share index, which hit the session’s low at 11,317.45 and the high at 11,474.89, reflected that bargain-hunters and speculators played on both sides of the market, while genuine investors stayed away.

It showed a modest recovery of 13.20 points at 11,467.96 as compared to 11,454.76 a day earlier as leading base shares, notably National Bank, OGDC, Pakistan Petroleum and PTCL finished recovered from the overnight levels.

An interim dividend of 80 per cent by Shell Pakistan was in line with the analyst predictions but a fall in EPS had a negative impact on the entire market, analysts said. Its share value reacted to close lower by Rs12.75 at Rs376.25.

However, unlike the United Bank and Askari Bank, which came out with higher cash dividend and bonus shares at 30 per cent and 25 per cent and 10 per cent and 50 per cent respectively but failed to lift the market from the early lows. Shell Pakistan interim dividend triggered a lot of short-covering on the oil sector at the lower prices.

An interim dividend of 12.5 per cent by Hub-Power was also failed to boost stock trading as bears dominated the market in the absence of leading buyers.

Apart from the absence of leading investors on technical grounds including implementations deadlines set for some of the measures taken in KSE board’s Feb 14 meeting and their likely impact on stock trading also their toll in the form of low volume, they said.

“The market is still passing through a consolidation phase being in overbought position,” analyst Ahsan Mehanti said, adding that it will take some more days to resume its upturn”.

But Asharf Zakria predicts the market is in the process of meeting its demands and will rebound sharply after investors are back under the lead of financial institutions to cover their short positions at the lower levels.

Fateh Textiles and Nestle Pakistan led the list of gainers, up by Rs23.15 and Rs49.90, Pak-Suzuki, Clover Pakistan, Rafhan Maize, IGI Insurance, J.S. Capital, Thal Industries and Treet Corporation, up by Rs4 to Rs14.55.

United Sugar and Shell Pakistan fell by Rs12.75 and Rs10 respectively. Others which followed them included Pak Resource Co, J.S. & Co, Javedan Cement, Wyeth Pakistan and Bata Pakistan, off Rs4.90 to Rs7.55.

Trading volume suffered sharp fall at 222m shares from the previous 349m shares as losers again held a fair lead over the gainers at 188 to 12, with 47 shares holding on to the last levels.

Kot Addu Power, hereto inactive share, led the list of actives, higher by Rs2.05 at Rs56.05 on 40m shares followed by Bank Alfalah, higher by Rs2.85 at Rs52.85 on 16m shares, PTCL steady, 30 paisa at Rs58.05 on 15m shares, TRG Pakistan, lower 25 paisa at Rs11.60 on 14m shares, National Bank, up by Rs2.15 at Rs291.25 on 13m shares, OGDC, firm by 25 paisa at Rs123.20 on 12m shares and Bank of Punjab, up by 50 paisa at Rs123.45 on 9m shares.

Pakistan Petroleum, followed them, higher Re1 on 7m shares, Lucky Cement, lower by Rs3.10 on 8m shares and Telecard, unchanged also on 7m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: National Bank led the list of actives on this counter, up by Rs1.90 at Rs292.15 on 9m shares followed by PTCL, firm by 65 paisa at Rs58.30 on 6m shares and OGDC, up by 85 paisa at Rs123.25 also on 6m shares.

MCB fell by Rs1.40 at 295.00 on 5m shares and D.G. Khan Cement, lower Rs3.40 at Rs77.30 on 4m shares.

DEFAULTER COS: Crescent Standard Bank Modaraba, came in for active short-covering and rose by 25 paisa at Rs1.55 on 1.239m shares followed by Norrie Textiles, up by 85 paisa at Rs5.25 on 0.866m shares and Zeal Pak Cement, lower by 35 paisa at Rs5 on 0.569m shares.

Crescent Standard Bank and Nimir Chemical came in for stray selling and ended modestly lower barring Unity Modaraba which held the overnight level amid modest volume.