June 26, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 10, 1428

KARACHI, June 25: Share market on Monday was back on the rails on active short-covering at the lower levels aided partly by successful launch of the United Bank’s GDR and settling down of the dust raised on the Bank of Punjab issue after the belated clarification by the Punjab government.

The KSE 100-share index was quoted higher by 147.98 points or 1.10 per cent at 13,540.45 as compared to previous 13,392.47 at the last weekend session adding Rs54.515 billion to the market capital at Rs3,945bn. The KSE 30-share index also rose by 125.62 points at 16,825.09 points.

The BoP episode late last week caused big losses to its stakeholders as well as to other investors amid conflicting rumours about financial irregularities led to panic-selling of its shares.

However, after the official clarification active short-covering was witnessed in its share, recovering Rs3 from the previous losses and was quoted at Rs111 on 15m shares.

The recovery led by the cement and oil sectors was, however, broad-based and covered most of the current favourites, the notable feature was that low-priced issues having potential of capital gains, notably TRG Pakistan and Maple Leaf Cement and some others came in for active support and ended with fresh good gains.

The successful issue of the United Bank’s GDR by the government which raised $650.3 million was another supporting factor behind the rally. The post-GDR session saw a surge of Rs10.30 in its share value at Rs216.30 on over 2m shares.

“The market has again demonstrated that it has chosen to follow its own fundamentals and not to be influenced by the external negative factors,” analyst Ashraf Zakaria said.

The market has many reasons to remain in good shape at least for the near-term, he said, adding that apart from higher earning reports the other supporting factor was the strong presence of foreign investors.

Apart from normal profit-taking by the foreign investors, their panic exit does reflect some bad news on the political front and is generally followed by the local investors, analyst Ahsan Mehanti said.

The current week is rollover week and may need technical adjustments here and there but indications are that outstanding amount of well over Rs10 billion is expected to be carried over to the July settlements from the expiring June contracts, analyst Hasnain Asghar Ali said, but ruled out the possibility of any major change in the current market outlook.

Siemens Pakistan and Nestle Pakistan were leading among the gainers, up by Rs63.50 and Rs64, followed by Javed Omer, Pakistan Engineering, Packages, Treet Corporation, Sanofi-Aventis, Adamjee Insurance and JS & Co, which posted gains ranging from Rs7.50 to Rs21.45.

Losers on the other hand were mostly fractional barring Atlas Honda and Sheezan International, off Rs8.30 and Rs11.80 respectively. They were followed by Shaheen Insurance, Bestway Cement, PSO, Huffaz Pipes, Sitara Chemicals and Pakistan Services, off by Rs3 to Rs4.50.

Trading volume was light at 286m shares as compared to 309m shares at the last weekend but gainers held a strong lead over the losers at 219 to 126, with 38 shares holding on to the last levels.

Lucky Cement led the list of actives, up by 90 paisa at Rs133.95 on 29m shares followed by D.G. Khan Cement, higher by Rs1.65 at Rs119.55 on 25m shares, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, steady by 60 paisa at Rs38.85 on 22m shares, TRG Pakistan, firm 65 paisa at Rs13.45 on 19m shares, Arif Habib Securities, higher by Rs5.05 at Rs119.50 on 11m shares, OGDC, up by 70 paisa at Rs119.95 on 6m shares and Faysal Bank, higher by Rs1.55 at Rs72.25 also on 6m shares.Other actives were led by Maple Leaf Cement, up by 80 paisa on 11m shares followed by Nishat Mills, higher by Rs3.05 0n 10m shares and some others were also traded higher on light turnover.

FORWARD COUNTER: Lucky Cement also led the list of actives on this counter, higher by 95 paisa at Rs134 on 12m shares followed by D.G. Khan Cement, firm by Rs1.26 at Rs119.81 on 8m shares and Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, up by Re1 at Rs38.90 on 5m shares.

Lucky Cement July contract also came in for active support and rose by Rs1.75 at Rs134.80 on 5m shares and Bank of Punjab, higher by Rs3.24 at Rs111.64 on 4m shares.

DEFAULTER COS: Active trading was again witnessed on this counter amid market talk of management changes under the lead of Norrie Textiles, up by 25 paisa at Rs2.75 on 1.991m shares followed by Japan Power, lower 10 paisa at Rs5.45 on 0.980m shares and Zeal Pak-Cement, steady by five paisa at Rs5.60 on 0.405m shares.

Other actives were led by Crescent Standard Modaraba, easy by 30 paisa at Rs1.60 on 0.218m shares, Nimir Chemical, lower five paisa at Rs3.90 on 0.216m shares and S.S. Oil, up by 60 paisa at Rs12.10 on 0.108m shares.