KARACHI, Nov 4: Trading activity on the stock market on Tuesday failed to pick up as leading investors kept to the sidelines awaiting apparently the advent of fund buying, but unlike the previous sessions some high profile shares came in for modest support.

The hallmark of the activity was alternate bouts of buying and selling on some of the counters under the lead of Highnoon Lab, Meezan Bank and Pak Datacom, but no one was inclined to go beyond certain pre-determined buying limits, analysts said.

“Despite last week’s whispering that the Rs20 billion market support fund may be active during the current week, there are no signs of its entry,” they said, adding “it may make debut by the next week as the contributors to the fund are still assessing the market response”.

Opinions are divided on the operative part of the proposed fund on the perception their funding in nine public sector shares may not be shared by the big ones, some others said.

“It appears to be pretty difficult to set the future market direction as off-the-floor transactions tell a different story,” they said, adding “why most of them are inclined to get out of their long unsold positions at a discount of 15 to 20 per cent may not be their willing option”.

This shows that the market may take quite some more time even after the fund buying to be back on the rails as the sustained recovery will be linked to an improved economy and inflow of foreign credit lines sans tough conditions, they added.

Barring the KSE all-shares index which posted a fractional rise of 0.15 points at 6,639.25 points, all other indices including the benchmark 100-share and its junior partner the 30-share remained static at their previous levels of 9,183.14 and 10,003.99 points respectively and so did the KMI 30-share at 11,224.18.

For the second session in a row, the market capital showed a fresh modest rise of Rs64 million at Rs2,829.700 billion, indicating that further capital erosion has been halted owing to select buying of leading shares.

For the second session in a row, fractional gains again led the list under the lead of Pak Datacom, which posted fresh sharp rise of Rs2.29 at Rs48.70 on the strength of higher payout and earnings.

Fidelity Leasing, Muhammad Farooq Textiles, Southern Electric, Sitara Energy and Habib-ADM followed it, rising by five to 83 paisa on stray business.

Losers were led by Gharibwal Cement, Al-Noor Modaraba and Paramount Modaraba, lower by four to 25 paisa.

Trading volume again fell to 0.247m shares from the previous 0.457m shares, but gainers held

a modest lead over the losers

at nine to four, with 14 shares holding onto their last levels, out of total 27 actives.

Habib-ADM led the list of actives, up by 34 paisa at Rs10.16 on 85,500 shares followed by Nishat Chunian, static at Rs11.62 also on 85,500 shares, Hihgnoon Lab, static at Rs32.20 on 10,000 shares, Sitara Energy, higher by 37 paisa at Rs20.77 also on 10,000 shares, Southern Electric, firm by nine paisa at Rs3.69 on 10,000 shares, and Standard Chartered Modaraba, steady by one paisa at Rs8.61 on 6,500 shares.

Pak Datacom followed them, sharply higher by Rs2.29 at Rs48.70 on 5,900 shares, Meezan Bank, unchanged at Rs27.20 on 4,500 shares and Kohinoor Mills, static at Rs15.25 on 3,500 shares.

DEFAULTER COMPANIES: Al-Qaim Textiles came in for modest support and was marked up by 25 paisa at Rs1.25 on 500 shares followed by Mukhtar Textiles, lower seven paisa at Rs0.53 on 4,500 shares and Zeal-Pak Cement, unchanged at Rs1.16 on 500 shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: The activity on this counter remained dull as no share came in for trading in the absence of support from any quarter.

DIVIDEND: Azgard-Nine, interim cash at the rate of 8.95 per cent.