KARACHI, Dec 3: Stocks ran into profit-selling on Wednesday amid fears that unfreezing of the market may be further delayed because the high-ups of IMF seem not in hurry to reach an understanding on the issue as the tired local brokers are.

The IMF’s operations are worldwide and to think of a prompt reply from it on the KSE’s application for removal of the ‘floor’ is anybody’s guess, market sources said.

This perception was well reflected in the steep decline of turnover from 197,300 shares to only 41,200 shares on Wednesday and a sharp fall of Rs2.329bn in the market capital at Rs2,818.127bn.

The benchmark KSE 100-share index remained unchanged at 9,187.10, while its junior partner KSE 30-share index suffered a fall of 23.12 points at 9,958.81 from the previous 9,981.93.

The KSE all-share index showed a fractional fall of 0.09 points at 6,641.66.

“Three months from August when the floor was imposed is said to be enough time for a positive decision on the most vital issue,” analysts said, adding the off-the-market transactions reflect ‘floor’ or ‘no floor’ a bailout operation continues at massive discount”.

Analyst Hasnain Asghar Ali said if the resumption of normal trading was now at the mercy of the IMF, a complete shutdown is needed to halt fresh price erosions in the kerb market.

He fears that the blue-chips may be trading at the rates of “peanuts” if current trading pattern continues.

Analyst Ahsan Mahanti says the market is caught in more than one terribly negative equal options and it may not be that easy to end the prevailing impasse.He said although Indo-Pak tension on the Mumbai terrorist attack issue was at its peak but already dull market did not react that badly to it as buying interest remained lacking.

Price changes were again mostly fractional and were confined to low-priced shares, while blue-chips were neglected as no one was inclined to go beyond the safe havens, some others said.

Out of the 17 shares, which came in for alternate bouts of buying and selling, two finished higher, while six fell with nine remaining pegged to the overnight levels.Chashma Sugar and Sitara Energy were among the top gainers, up by Re1 and 90 paisa on stray support of jobbing nature.

But on the other hand losers dominated the list under the lead of Habib-ADM Ltd and Gharibwal Cement, which were marked down by 38 and 26 paisa, while others fell fractionally.

Trading volume fell to 41,200 shares from the previous 197,300 shares as jobbers and day traders kept to the sidelines awaiting further development on the ‘floor’ issue.

The active list was topped by Pakistan Commercial Leasing, unchanged at Rs0.56 on 8,500 shares followed by Habib-ADM, off 38 paisa at Rs9.36 also on 8,500 shares, Pak Datacom, easy by 10 paisa at Rs51.31 on 5,800 shares, Sitara Energy, higher by 90 paisa at Rs20.52 on 5,000 shares, Colony Thal Textiles, static at Rs3.25 on 2,000 shares and Gharibwal Cement, lower by 26 paisa at Rs17.21 also on 2,000 shares.

Modaraba Al-Mali followed them, static at Rs2.25 on 1,500 shares, First Credit and Investment Bank, unchanged at Rs6.76 on 1,500 shares and Al-Zamin Leasing, lower by five paisa at Rs1.75 also on 1,000 shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: The activity on the cleared list failed to pick up as investors were not inclined to make fresh commitments awaiting the settlement of outstanding deals.

DEFAULTER COMPANIES: National Asset Leasing, lower by one paisa at Rs0.43 on 1,000 shares followed by Zeal Pak Cement, unchanged at Rs1.16 also on 1,000 shares.