June 27, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 22, 1429

KARACHI, June 26: Trading activity on the shares market on Thursday significantly slowed down as follow-up support turned shy after the exit of foreign investors owing to fears about the developing law and order situation in the frontier province and tribal areas.

The final closing was mixed as investors played on both sides of the fence after the buying euphoria associated with the market stabilisation step was overshadowed by reports of activities of militants in the border areas of the NWFP.

The opening was, however, on the higher side, what the dealers called, extension of the overnight run-up as was reflected by 178 points increase in the KSE 100-share index at the session’s high of 12,608.51.

But the mid-session witnessed the exit of leading bulls who took profits at the inflated levels in most of the leading shares under the lead of OGDC, Engro Chemical and Arif Habib Securities and the index finally ended with a modest rise of 21.79 points at 12,452.08.

Although fresh strong foreign buying in MCB Bank and some other leading oil shares allowed the index with extended gains, weakness of the banking, cement and oil shares may drive the market again into the minus territory, fears analyst Hasnain Asghar Ali.“I don’t say the last two sessions’ smart recovery and a record rise in the index has pushed the market in an overbought position, investors certainly have an overview of the developing situation in the tribal areas and the NWFP,” analyst Ahsan Mehanti said.

But one thing is clear that the market lacks an environment considered conducive for a normal trading in the share business, he added.

Another analyst Ashraf Zakaria said the market is still in an oversold zone and could attract any amount of technical buying but investors may not opt for capital gains until normalcy returns to the political scene.

The low-volume figure indicates that those who covered positions two days earlier were out after having sold at the higher levels amid fears of return of a bear market, he added.

Some of the leading shares whose floating stock is short on the open market, notably Wyeth Pakistan and Bata Pakistan rose by Rs184.10 and Rs50 followed by Allied Bank, Haseeb Waqas Sugar, JWD Sugar, Dadex, United Sugar, Lakson Tobacco, Sapphire Fibres, JS & Co, MCB Bank and Nestle Pakistan, which posted gains ranging from Rs5 to Rs35.

But on the other hand, Siemens Pakistan and Fazal Textiles fell further by Rs10 and Rs7.86 on renewed selling. Others fell fractionally, barring EFU General, JS global, Ferozsons Lab, PSO and Attock Petroleum, off by Rs3 to Rs4.45.

Turnover figure again fell to a modest level of 146m shares from the previous 233m shares as losers held a strong a lead over the gainers at 199 to 94, with 26 shares holding on to the last levels, out of the 319 actives.

The most active list was topped by Arif Habib Securities, lower one rupee at Rs164.75 on 12m shares, followed by D G Khan Cement, up by 84 paisa at Rs68.49 on 11m shares, United Bank, higher by Rs1.79 at Rs86.80 on 8m shares, MCB Bank, sharply higher by Rs23.79 at Rs333 on 7m shares, OGDC, off Rs1.28 at Rs126.87 on 6m shares, PTCL, easy by 39 paisa at Rs39.42 also on 6m shares and Bank Al-Falah, lower by 42 paisa at Rs41.88 on 5m shares.

Other actives were led by Lucky Cement, easy one rupee at Rs99.90 on 6m shares, followed by Engro Chemical, off Rs2.86 at Rs283.64 on 6m shares and JS & Co, sharply higher by Rs22.20 at Rs540.90 on 5m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: Engro Polymer led the list of actives on the cleared list, up by Rs1.42 at Rs29.96 on 9m shares. It had progressively declined from the opening level of Rs48.50 to its lowest of Rs27.50 before rebounding.

Other actives were led by JS & Co, higher by Rs29.30 at Rs551.10 on 3m shares, and its June settlement was quoted higher by Rs20.08 at Rs541.90 also on 3m shares.

MCB Bank was quoted sharply higher by Rs20.35 at Rs331 on 3m shares followed by United Bank, steady by 50 paisa at Rs88.50 also on 3m shares.

DEFAULTER COMPANIES: The activity on this counter again remained slow as investors took a technical breather. Unity Modaraba came in for active support and was quoted higher by five paisa at Rs1.01 on 1.631m shares followed by Norrie Textiles, easy by two paisa at Rs2.13 on 0.380m shares and Zeal Pak Cement, lower also by two paisa at Rs2.78 on 0.114m shares.