KARACHI: Stocks on Friday ran into weekend profit-selling under the lead of index heavy weights and dragged it again below the barrier amid thinly traded session as the turnover figure fell below the 100m share mark.

The KSE 100-share index finally finished the weekend session well below its crucial level of 9,000 points for the second time during the week at 8,936.48, off 175.62 points or about two per cent as compared to 9,112.10 a day earlier, reflecting the weakness of leading base shares and a good bit of weekend selling by the day and the speculative traders.

Its junior partner also fell by 231.26 points or 2.40 per cent at 9,396.44 on renewed selling in the pivotals. But the breach appears to be a week-end technical demand rather than any genuine bearish reasons behind it, the gap is expected to be bridged after trading resumes next week, most floor brokers believe.

‘The level of 9,000 points has seemed to have assumed the role of a launching pad for its (benchmark’s) forward thrust to its base of 10,000 points,’ they predict. Although background news both on the political and law and order front were relatively encouraging, weekend considerations weighed heavily against the underlying sentiment.

‘Uncertainty over the issue of inclusion of the KSE index in the emerging market index seems to have again taken its toll in the form of price erosions,’ analyst Ahsan Mehanti said.

The other destabilising factor appears to be near-end of the dividend news from the corporate front and the absence of leading foreign buyers owing partly to week-end considerations, he said.

‘The market should have reacted positively to good news from the war-on- terror front and relative calm on the law and order front,’ said analyst Ashraf Zakaria but leading investors are still in two minds about the future direction of the market and prefer to play safe.

Leading gainers were led by Nestle Pakistan and Bata Pakistan, up by Rs 24.50 and 22.68 followed by Indus Dyeing, Indus Motors, Lakson Tobacco, Exide Pakistan, PICT, Dawood Hercules, and Fazal Textiles, which rose by Rs4.71 to 18.

Prominent losers included Treet Corporation, Service Industries, MCB, PSO, EFU Life, HinoPak, and Tri-Pack Films, which suffered fall ranging from Rs5.51 to 14.74. Habib Bank, Pakistan Petroleum, Colgate Pakistan, National Refinery and EFU General followed them, falling by Rs4.20 to 4.95.

Trading volume fell below the 100m share mark at 97.120m shares as leading players kept to the sidelines as losers extended their lead over the gainers at 238 to 131, with 19 shares holding on to the last levels.

The active list was topped by J.S. & Co, off Rs1.55 at 29.48 on 10m shares followed by Arif Habib Securities, lower by Rs1.89 at 48.43 on 7m shares, Nishat Power, up 99 paisa at 13.77 on 5m shares, Attock Refinery, higher by Rs5.52 at 135.15 on 4m shares, Pak PTA, easy 10 paisa at 6.66 on 3m shares, Engro Chemical, lower 53 paisa at 170.19 also on 3m shares, and Azgard Nine, off Rs1.09 at 20.82 on 3m shares.

Nishat Mills followed them, off Rs1.73 at 59.09 on 3m shares, OGDC, off Rs3.12 at 103.37 also on 3m shares and Bank AlFalah, lower 46 paisa at 12.75 on 3m shares.

FUTURE CONTRACTS:

OGDC came in for fresh selling and was quoted lower by Rs2.47 at 103.80 on 0.373m shares followed by National Bank, lower by Rs2.67 at 76.37 on 0.221m shares, and Engro Chemical, easy 37 paisa at 170.31 on 0.199m shares. D.G. Khan Cement followed them, off Rs1.16 at 26.59 on 0.189m shares and MCB Bank, off Rs7.79 at 214.42 on 0.183m shares.

DEFAULTER COS:

Modarabas came in for active support on reports of higher earnings as Unity Modaraba led the list of actives, lower by four paisa at Rs0.09 on 0.566m shares followed by Crescent Standard Modaraba, up 27 paisa at Rs0.50 on 0.211m shares and Investment Modaraba, lower 20 paisa at 0.11 on 0.108m shares.