KARACHI, Dec 27: The recent upward drive on the stock market was halted on Thursday as a section of investors took profits at the higher levels amid an actively traded session where alternate bouts of buying figured prominently. The KSE 100-share index was off 43.00 points at 14,772.08.
However, the interruption in the market’s sustained run-up of the last couple of sessions appears to be technical as the underlying sentiment remained uppishly inclined thanks to the presence of support at dips.
The opening was fairly promising on strong follow-up support on selected counters but the midsession witnessed the return of the bears, some of whom indulged in profit-selling at the higher levels.
The bulk of the support again remained confined to most of the secondliners, notably TRG Pakistan, Telecard, JS Bank, and Dewan Cement as a section of investors was not inclined to opt for high-profile issues owing to election uncertainties, floor brokers said.
After touching the session’s peak at 14,875.40, the KSE share index finally finished with a modest fall of 42.77 points at 14,772.08 as compared to 14,814.85 a day earlier. Some of the leading base shares remained under pressure on selling.
The KSE 30-share index also suffered a fall of 87.48 points at 17,578.78 on selling in some of the leading industrial shares.
Trading volume showed a further increase at 328m shares from the overnight’s 308m shares owing to alternate bouts of buying and selling on some of the counters.
The weakness of the banking and oil sectors after the recent run-up was said to be the chief destabilising factor behind the market’s snap reversal, analysts said but predicted that further price appreciation are overdue on some of the sectors.
“The market appears to be in a consolidation phase and could resume its upward drive even tomorrow as portfolio adjustments on some of the counters are still halfway”, they added.
Although minus signs dominated the list under lead of Wyeth Pakistan and Unilever Pakistan, off by Rs119.00 and 60.00. Other prominent losers included Pakistan Resource Co, United Sugar, Pakistan Paper Products, Attock Petroleum, Pak-Suzuki, and KSB Pumps, which suffered fall ranging from Rs6.05 to 13.00.
Leading gainers were led by JS & Co and EFU Life managed to put on fresh sharp gains of Rs34.40 and 31.00 respectively, followed by Mitchell’s Fruits, Atlas Honda, Ferozsons Lab, Service Industries, Bata Pakistan, National Foods, Dawood Hercules , Arif Habib Ltd, and IGI Insurance, which posted gains ranging from Rs7.80 to 21.25.
The most active listed was topped by TRG Pakistan, up one rupee at Rs. 15.00 on 71m shares followed by Telecard, steady by 40 paisa at Rs11.85 on 21m shares, NIB Bank, lower by 95 paisa at Rs23.00 on 12m shares, Arif Habib Securities, easy by one rupee at Rs182.30 on 11m shares, Javed Omer & Co, up by Rs1.80 at Rs172.00 also on 11m shares and National Bank, up by Rs1.75 at Rs244.35 on 9m shares.
Other actives included Fauji Cement, steady by five paisa on 10m shares, followed by Bosicor Pakistan, lower 65 paisa on 8m shares and Dewan Cement, up by 80 paisa on 7m shares.
FORWARD COUNTER: Arif Habib Bank led the list of actives on this counter, lower by 60 paisa on selling ahead of its IPO from Dec 28 to 31, at Rs36.40 on 5m shares followed by Telecard, higher by 40 paisa at Rs11.91 on 4m shares and National Bank, up Rs1.90 at Rs245.00 on 3m shares.
Pakistan Petroleum followed them, firm by 45 paisa at Rs 257.35 on 3m shares and its January contracts, higher by 89 paisa at Rs259.50 also on 3m shares.
DEFAULTER COS: Zeal-Pak Cement led the list of actives on this counter, easy by five paisa at Rs4.70 on 1.333m shares followed by Norrie Textiles, lower 15 paisa at Rs2.00 on 0.544m shares, and Pangrio Sugar, off 25 paisa at Rs21.65 on 0.382m shares.
Unity Modaraba, on the other hand came in for active support and was quoted higher by 15 paisa at Rs2.05 on 1.438m shares followed by Japan Power, lower 15 paisa at Rs7.45 on 0.158m shares and Invest Capital Bank, easy by 25 paisa at Rs7.00 on 0.212m shares.
