September 04, 2007	Tuesday	Sha'aban 21, 1428

KARACHI, Sept 3: The share market on Monday resumed trading on a dull note as leading investors remained conspicuous by their absence apparently awaiting fresh positive developments on the political front. The KSE 100-share index recovered 19 points at 12,233.05 amid light trading.

Selective support, however, re-emerged on a number of counters under the lead of MCB but they failed to boost the morale of the general investor who preferred to keep to the sidelines as political uncertainty weighed heavily against their buying strategy.

The KSE-100 index shares managed to finish around the session’s high of 12,233.05 points, up 18.79 points after having breached through the barrier of 12,000 points on early selling. The KSE 30-share index on the other hand rose by 50.45 points at 14,948.92.

An idea of market volatility may well be had from the fact that the index at one stage was off 217 points but later recovered the loss on strong short-covering in some of the pivotals.

The recovery was, however, inconclusive as bulk of the buying remained confined to MCB that soared by another Rs15.70 at Rs327.05, Adamjee Insurance and Attock Refinery gained Rs8.20 and Rs7.55 respectively on active turnover. The trio together has a weightage of over 30 per cent in the index.

But other index heavy weight notably, National Bank, OGDC and Lucky Cement came in for renewed selling and tended lower.

Analysts said sharp decline in the turnover figure was reflection of prevailing political uncertainty after reports that the talks between President Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto have stalled.

“Investors will not go for a ‘big kill’ until dust on political front settles down,” they added.

Therefore investors just marked their time after having indulged in alternate bouts of buying and selling and refrained from making long positions even on the blue chip counters at the lower level.

Among the top gainers, JS & Co and Nestle Pakistan were leading, up by Rs40.50 and Rs74, followed by Arif Habib Ltd, Adamjee Insurance, Pakistan Reinsurance Co, Thal Jute, Lakson Tobacco, Glaxo-SKF, Colgate Pakistan, Ferozsons Lab and EFU Life, which posted gains ranging from Rs8 to Rs16.65.

Prominent losers were led by Sanofi-Aventis and Siemens Pakistan, off Rs10.95 and Rs25. Others fell modestly under the lead of Al-Ghazi Tractors, Tri-Pack Films, National Refinery, Berger Paints, Pak-Suzuki Motors and Fazal Textiles, off Rs5 to Rs10.

Trading volume fell to 137m shares from the previous 210m shares as losers held a strong lead over the gainers at 187 to 101, with 21 holding on to the last levels.

National Bank led the list of actives, easy by Re1 at Rs229 on 12m shares, followed by MCB, higher by Rs15.70 at Rs327.05 on 10m shares, Javed Omer, up by Rs2.65 at Rs155 on 7m shares.

Arif Habib Securities, off Rs2.90 at Rs117.10 on 7m shares, Bank Alfalah, steady 25 paisa at Rs45.25 also on 7m shares, Adamjee Insurance, higher by Rs8.20 at Rs294 on 6m shares and Attock Refinery, up by Rs7.55 at Rs169.65 also on 6m shares.

Other actives were led by WorldCall Telecom, lower 60 paisa on 7m shares, OGDC, easy 15 paisa on 6m shares and Lucky Cement, off Rs2.70 at Rs107.45 also on 6m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: MCB led the list of actives, higher by Rs15.18 at Rs319.70 on 8m shares, followed by National Bank, easy 17 paisa at Rs230.55 on 7m shares and Lucky Cement, lower by Rs1.69 at Rs108 on 6m shares.

D.G. Khan Cement followed them, lower by Rs1.32 at Rs92 on 4m shares and OGDC, steady by five paisa at Rs105.15 on 3m shares.

DEFAULTER COMPANIES: Zeal-Pak Cement led the list of actives on this counter and fell by 15 paisa at Rs5.05 on 0.600m shares followed by Japan Power, easy by 25 paisa at Rs8.60 on 0.126m shares, Unity Modaraba, lower five paisa at 60 paisa on 0.137m shares and Nimir Chemicals, off 15 paisa at Rs3.35 on 0.107m shares.

DIVIDEND: Kot Addu Power Co, cash final 30 per cent, Shifa International, cash 10 per cent, Quality Textiles, Quice Foods and Sana Industries, all nil.