KARACHI, Sept 18: The KSE 100-share index on Thursday maintained its creeping decline as some of the leading base shares came in for fresh selling and ended further lower, but unlike the previous sessions there were buyers at the dips.

Amid global financial rout after the bankruptcy of US investment bank, Lehman Brothers, the local market was saved by the price-freeze, analysts said, adding “if the index was not under the floor, it would have been a different story for the local bourse to tell”.

Dividend plus bonus shares announced by Orix Leasing and Zulfeqar Industries were on the higher side of the market expectation, but owing to the prevailing sluggishness they failed to revive sympathetic interest on the other counters, analysts said.

“There are more than one worries being faced by the local investors apart from a perception of a weak economy, rising fiscal deficit and higher cost of industrial outputs,” analyst Ahsan Mehanti said.

But Tabish H. Rajabali thinks the persistent outflow of foreign funds from the capital market, the situation in the tribal areas and rising tension between Pakistan-US relations also worrying investors.

However, the immediate investor concern appears to be weakness of the rupee, which is now quoted at a record low against the dollar as it is a “double-edged weapon,” which affects the stock trading in more than one ways”.

The KSE 100-share index posted a fresh fall of 13.92 points slightly bigger as compared to previous daily losses of an average eight points and ended at 9,202.31, indicating it was progressively heading towards the floor of 9,144 points before the review date of Sept 25.

But on the other hand its junior partner, the KSE 30-share index fell modestly by 6.93 points at 10,177.12 after last two session’s modest gains.

Leading gainers were led by Habib-ADM Sugar and Olympia Spinning, up by Re1 and 30 paisa followed by Siddiqsons Tinplate, up 28 paisa, UPT Large Fund, up 17 paisa, Orix Leasing, higher 12 paisa, while some others were quoted fractionally higher.

Losers were led by National Foods and Unilever Pakistan, off by Rs19.76 and Rs10. Other prominent losers included Capital Asset Leasing, Royal Bank, PICIC Insurance, Pak Elektron and Engro Chemical, off by Re1 to Rs3.63.

Traded volume showed a modest rise at 6.242m shares from the overnight total of 5.475m shares, mostly contributed by the selling rather than buying on any of the blue chip counter.

Engro chemical led the list of actives, off by Rs3.63 at Rs182.51 on 2.968m shares followed by Meezan Bank, lower 80 paisa at Rs27.20 on 0.566m shares followed by BankIslami Pak, unchanged at Rs10.71 on 0.200m shares, WorldCall Telecom, unchanged at Rs7.80 on 0.200m shares, Hub-Power, also unchanged at Rs21.46 on 0.190m shares, KESC, static at Rs3.80 on 0.188m shares and Eye TV, lower by 24 paisa at Rs39.71 on 0.161m shares.

NIB Bank followed them, unchanged at Rs8.45 on 0.106m shares, Fauji Fertiliser, unchanged at Rs100 on 0.101m shares and JS Bank, static at Rs10 on 0.100m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: Engro Chemical also came in for active selling on the cleared list and was marked down by Rs2.65 at Rs183.25 on 0.386m shares, followed by PTCL, lower by 49 paisa at Rs30.66 on 0.24m shares, Hub-Power, unchanged at Rs20.91 on 0.2m shares and Netsole, also unchanged at Rs55.06 on 0.1m shares.