KARACHI, May 18: The share market was back on the rails on Friday followed by active short-covering on the blue chips counters at the lower levels. The KSE 100-share index was up by about 90 points at 12,340.42.
The strong weekend recovery indicates that investors have fully absorbed the negative fallout of the recent incidents of violence in the city and now are out to do serious business, said a leading broker.
However, most of the high-profile active scrips were neglected as investors were still in two minds about the future market outlook, low-priced shares remained the target of fresh buying indicating that they were not inclined to take bigger risk.
The KSE 100-share index was quoted higher by 89.67 points at 12,340.42 as compared to 12,250.75 a day earlier as leading base shares managed to finish modestly higher. The KSE 30-share index also rose by 111.47 points at 15,287.23.
Heavy buying in OGDC, MCB and some others led the recovery, while major buying interest remained confined to second-liners and low-priced issues.
In the morning session, external negative factors dominated the stock trading as investors were not inclined to make bigger commitments owing to weekend considerations and absence of leading institutional traders.
Market talk of pressure on liquidity and some technical factors relating to implementation of remaining part of the SECP guidelines under the phased out reform also said to have considerably curtailed the physical activity for the last couple of sessions, analysts said.
However, all was not bad with the weekend session selective support was evident on a number of counters at the lower levels.
“After having survived the negative fallout of the city carnage, the market is now ripe for a technical correction possibly by the next week,” analyst Hasnain Asghar Ali predicts, adding “oil, cement and bank shares are expected to give the much needed lead to the prospective investors”.
Cement shares on the strength of rising export and the lower levels had played a pivotal role in reviving investor interest on the other counters particularly oil scrips, some others said.
Attock Petroleum and Siemens Pakistan were leading among the gainers, up by Rs13.35 and Rs70. Other prominent gainers included Fazal Textiles, Adamjee Insurance, National Refinery, Mari Gas, HinoPak Motors, Bata Pakistan, Gillette Pakistan, Zulfiqar Industries and JS Global, which were quoted higher by Rs5.35 to Rs12.
Prominent losers were led by Unilever Pakistan and Indus Motors fell by Rs6 and Rs6.80 followed by Arif Habib Securities, Pakistan Resource Co, Al-Ghazi Tractors, Singer Pakistan and Ferozsons Lab, off Rs2.10 to Rs3.
Trading volume rose to 207m shares from the previous 170m shares as gainers held a strong lead over the losers at 208 to 122, with 37 shares holding on to the last levels.
WorldCall Telecom topped the list of actives, up by Re1 at Rs16.55 on 15m shares followed by OGDC, sharply higher by Rs1.30 at Rs120 on 14m shares, Telecard, firm by 35 paisa at Rs10.40 on 13m shares, Lucky Cement, up by 60 paisa at Rs99.35 on 7m shares, Bank of Punjab, higher by 65 paisa at Rs95.75 also on 7m shares and Nishat Mills, steady by 15 paisa at Rs130.15 also on 7m shares.
TRG Pakistan, followed them higher by 80 paisa on 12m shares, Azgard Nine, up by Rs1.15 on 11m shares, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, easy 15 paisa on 6m shares and D. G. Khan Cement, up by 65 paisa also on 6m shares.
FORWARD COUNTER: Pervez Ahmed Securities, a newly-floated company, topped the list of actives on the cleared list, up by 90 paisa at Rs14.40 on 4m shares, followed by Nishat Mills, up by Rs1.10 at Rs129.85 on 3m shares and Telecard, higher by 55 paisa at Rs10.65 also on 3m shares.
OGDC was quoted higher by Re1 at Rs120 on 3m shares, while Lucky Cement rose by 30 paisa at Rs99.30 on 3m shares.
DEFAULTER COS: Active trading was witnessed on this counter under the lead of Asset Investment Bank, up by Re1 at Rs4.70 on 0.801m shares followed by Unity Modaraba, unchanged at 55 paisa on 0.717m shares and Norrie Textiles, up by 15 paisa at Rs2.75 on 0.269m shares.
Zeal Pak Cement followed them, easy by five paisa at Rs4.90 on 0.130m shares and Nimir Chemical, unchanged at Rs3.25 on 0.198m shares.
