June 20, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 04, 1428

KARACHI, June 19: Leading shares on the stock market on Tuesday came in for active profit-selling at the higher levels and finished lower but there were buyers at the dips, indicating the current run-up was not overdone. The KSE 100-share index was off 73 points at 13,495.

The notable feature of the session was that hereto neglected some second-tier shares came in for active short-covering at the lower levels and provided another investment outlet to those who want to make long-term investment for capital appreciation.The KSE 100-share index reacted to close lower by 72.57 points at 13,494.83 as compared to 13,567.40 a day earlier as most of the index heavy weights came in for active profit-selling. The free float 30-share index fell by 96.84 points at 16,809.64.It had crossed the barrier of 13,600-point twice during the recent past but failed to sustain it on strong resistance from the bears apparently for not very cogent reasons, said a leading broker adding the foreign investors are around and could do the needful at a proper time.

However, that is not to say that the future share business outlook is not bullish, he said adding, “It is, but it has to meet its technical demands before proceeding upward.”

“CFS problems are there as the investment figure is hovering around its ceiling of Rs55 billion for the last couple of weeks and needs to be raised to sustain the market’s current rising tempo,” a leading stock analyst Ashraf Zakaria said adding: “The ball is now in SECP court.”

He said there was a major shift in the buying strategy of leading investors as they had pointed their guns to the undervalued shares where the capital gains are almost sure and about eight or ten out of them finished around their “upper locks” notable among them being JS Bank, Dewan Cement, and PICIC Bank.

Analyst Faisal Abbas said, “It is satisfying to note that there is no outflow of the liquidity from the market, which is very much here but it certainly changes portfolios where the chances of capital gains are more attractive.”

Leading gainers were led by Sanofi-Aventis and JS & Co, up by Rs18.60 and Rs17 followed by Atlas Insurance, Gatron Industries, KSB Pumps, Atlas Honda, Javed Omer, Pakistan Services and Bata Pakistan, which rose by Rs6.05 to 15.

Prominent losers were led by Fazal Textiles, National Refinery and Nestle Pakistan, off by Rs12 to 70. Other notable losers included EFU General, Pakistan Resource Co, Thal Jute, Pakistan Engineering, and Pakistan Refinery, off Rs6.05 to 10.95.

Trading volume rose to 272m shares from the previous 257m shares but losers held a strong lead over the gainers at 205 to 176, with 37 shares holding on to the last level.

The most active list was topped by Arif Habib Securities, up by Rs2.40 at Rs124.40 on 14m shares followed by Nishat Mills, higher by Rs2.40 at Rs128.40 on 12m shares, OGDC, off 95 paisa at Rs121.40 on 11m shares, JS Bank, up one rupee at Rs19.15 on 11m shares, D.G.Khan Cement, off Rs2.20 at Rs114.75 also on 10m shares, Dewan Cement, up 70 paisa at Rs17.40 on 9m shares and Pakistan Petroleum, off by 75 paisa at Rs264.75 on 8m shares.

Among the other actives, Callmate Telips was leading, up 2.60 on 10m shares, Bank of Punjab, easy by 50 paisa on 9m shares and PICIC Bank, higher by Rs1.90 on 7m shares.

DEFAULTER COS: Active trading was again witnessed on this counter as about a dozen shares came in for active bouts of buying and selling under the lead of Japan Power, which was quoted further higher by 45 paisa at Rs6.15 on 4.584m shares.

Other actives were led by Norrie Textiles, lower by 10 paisa at Rs2.70 on 0.500m shares, followed by Nimir Chemicals, easy by the same amount at Rs3.80 on 0.471m shares and Mukhtar Textiles, off 20 paisa at Rs3.25 on 0.272m shares.

Asset Bank, Redco Textiles and Zeal Pak Cement were among the other actives, which were marked down on higher volumes.