April 12, 2007	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 23, 1428

KARACHI, April 11: Stocks on Wednesday remained in a bullish frame of mind as leading institutional traders and foreign investors continued to build up long positions on the cement, banks and oil sectors on reports of higher earnings amid a briskly traded session.

The KSE 100-share index finished close to 11,900-level boosted by fresh bouts of speculative buying on selected counters on reports of higher corporate earnings and expectations of handsome dividend by most of current leading actives.

“The trio — cement, bank and oil — of late has assumed the role of market trend-setter and for good reasons too,” leading analyst Ahsan Mehanti said, adding “the cement sector being an envy of investors owing to massive increase in exports and the oil sector being on the hit-list of foreign funds”.“Based on the basic positive market fundamentals, the rally is genuine,” Ashraf Zakria said, adding “but if the developing political uncertainty is taken into consideration risks are there but the index may not falter before hitting the 12,000-point plus level”.

But some other said both the financial institutions and the foreign funds appear to be on virtual rampage and there could be an unhappy happening any session.

After hitting the session’s peak level of 11,899.18 at one stage, the KSE 100-share finally closed at 11,894.96 on late selling, up by 121.06 points or 1.03 per cent, signaling that it was steadily inching up to regain its lost glory of well above the 12,000-level.

Investor scramble to corner the floating stocks was evident from the steep increase in the turnover figure which crossed the 300m shares mark after several months.

The interesting feature of the trading was that there was no massive activity in any single share but it was judiciously shared by a dozen most active shares, a rare thing in market parlance.

Leading gainers were led by Packages and Siemens Pakistan, up by Rs11.50 and Rs35.10, while prominent losers included Noon Pakistan and Zulfiquar Industries, off Rs4 and Rs7.40 respectively.

Trading volume rose to 311m shares from the previous 260m shares as gainers maintained a strong lead over the losers a 215 to 124, with 41 shares holding on to the last levels.

Lucky Cement led the list of actives, up by Rs3 at Rs95.60 on 30m shares, Fauji Cement, steady by 10 paisa at Rs19.55 on 23m shares, Askari Bank, higher by Rs4.05 at Rs85.70 on 20m shares and D.G. Khan Cement, up by Rs1.80 at Rs96.55 also on 20m shares.

Bank of Punjab, firm by 95 paisa at Rs94.10 also on 20m shares, National Bank, up by Rs2.25 at Rs247.25 on 15m shares and Pakistan Petroleum, higher by Rs3.25 at Rs261.70 on 13m shares.

Other actives were led by PTCL, higher by Rs1.10 at Rs52.50 on 12m shares followed by Pakistan Cement, higher by 45 paisa also on 12m shares and Bank Alfalah, up by 50 paisa on 12m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: Lucky Cement also led the list of actives on this counter, up by Rs3.05 at Rs96.25 on 11m shares, OGDC, higher by Rs1.35 at Rs119.95 on 8m shares and D.G. Khan Cement, firm by Rs1.40 at Rs96.60 on 6m shares.

Other actives included National Bank, up by Rs2.40 at Rs248.75 on 5m shares and Askari Bank, higher by Rs2.10 at Rs86.40 also on 5m shares.

DEFAULTER COS: Active trading was also witnessed on this counter as half dozen shares came in for active support under the lead of Zeal Pak Cement, unchanged at Rs5.70 on 0.773m shares followed by Norrie Textiles, easy five paisa at Rs3.50 on 0.317m shares and Japan Power, up by 10 paisa at Rs4.05 on 0.288m shares.

National Asset Leasing, Mukhtar Textiles and Nimir Chemicals on the other hand came in for stray selling and ended fractionally lower barring the former, which rose by 50 paisa at Rs3.20 on 0.137m shares.