September 19, 2007	Wednesday	Ramazan 06, 1428

KARACHI, Sept 18: The share market on Tuesday staged a snap rally, pulling itself out from the sluggishness linked to the holy month of Ramazan as a section of leading investors covered positions in the oil and bank sectors at the current lower levels amid an actively traded session.

The market’s bullish mood was well reflected in the KSE 100-share index, which soared by 160.75 points or 1.26 per cent on active short-covering in the leading base shares, adding about Rs50 billion to the market capital at Rs3,796 billion.

At one stage it was only about 11 points short below the coveted index level of 13,000 at 12,989.56 but late selling at the inflated levels pushed it down to close reacted at 12,952.60. Its junior partner 30-share index recovered 213.18 points at 15,674.19 points.

Leading base shares, notably OGDC, Pakistan Oilfields, Pakistan Petroleum aided by new oil and gas finds and bank shares, under the lead of National Bank, Punjab of Punjab and MCB contributed significantly to the index recovery.

News from the political front was not that encouraging amid the prevailing uncertainty as investors were worried over the likely impact of the apex court ruling on the president’s dual office petition.

“The situation on the legal front is not clear but investors seem to have decided to go by the market’s technical demands and fundamentals,” said a leading broker, adding “leading among them may have found cue to some positive developments out of an uncertain political future political outlook”.

Leading analysts did not rule out the possibility of foreign buying in the oil shares because of their current lower levels and their future growth potential ensuring higher capital gains.

More than one reasons could be attributed to the snap market rally but no one could precisely tell “is it the right time to speculate about the corporate and political as well as legal fronts,” they said.

However, a substantial increase in the turnover figure reflected some basic change in the market fundamentals, which no one was inclined to miss and rode the bandwagon.

Among the leading gainers Attock Petroleum and JS Global were leading, up by Rs25.65 and Rs23.05 respectively. PSO, Shell Pakistan, Mari Gas, National Refinery, EFU Life, Attock Refinery, Siemens Pakistan, Dawood Hercules KSB Pumps and Pakistan Oilfields followed them and were quoted higher by Rs7.10 to Rs15.95. There several other good gainers also.

Prominent losers were led by Bata Pakistan and Unilever Pakistan, off by Rs11 and Rs19.95 respectively followed by Fateh Textiles, Netsol, Sazgar Engineering and Sanofi-Aventis, off by Rs4.05 to Rs7.

Trading volume rose to 214m shares from the previous 136m shares as gainers held a strong lead over the losers at 198 to 89, with 40 shares holding on to the last levels.

TRG Pakistan led the list of actives, up by 85 paisa at Rs15.35 on 37m shares followed by Arif Habib Securities, higher by Rs4.55 at Rs142.90 on 20m shares and Pakistan Petroleum, up by Rs4.15 at Rs257.75 on 10m shares. Pakistan Oilfields, higher by Rs5.50 at Rs311.50 on 8m shares, Attock Refinery, up by Rs10 at Rs210.55, Bank of Punjab, steady by 90 paisa at Rs96.45 on 6m shares and Bosicor Pakistan, higher by 85 paisa at Rs19.35 on 18m shares.

Other actives were led by Pakistan Cement, steady by 10 paisa on 9m shares, Lucky Cement, firm by 25 paisa on 7m shares and Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, unchanged on 6m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: OGDC led the list of actives on the cleared list, up by Rs1.20 at Rs112.50 on 6m shares, followed by Lucky Cement, steady by 45 paisa at Rs124.70 on 4m shares and MCB, sharply higher by Rs7.10 at Rs328.90 on 3m shares aided by GDR related foreign support.

Pakistan Petroleum followed them, higher by Rs4.10 at Rs258.35 on 3m shares and Pakistan Oilfields, up by Rs5.50 at Rs312.50 on 2m shares.

DEFAULTER COMPANIES: Japan Power came in for active support at the previous level, unchanged at Rs10.30 on 1.506m shares followed by Norrie Textiles, unchanged at Rs2.25 on 0.343m shares, Nimir Chemical, also unchanged at Rs3.75 on 0.316m and Zeal-Pak Cement, unchanged at Rs5.15 on 0.315m shares. Pangrio Sugar was quoted higher by 35 paisa at Rs6.20 on 0.167m shares.

DIVIDEND: Otsuka Pakistan, cash 25 per cent.