KARACHI: After having reopened on an impressive note on Tuesday fuelled by early short-covering, the share market later shed a good part of the initial gains on selling triggered by city violence and negative news from the political front.

Analysts attributed the initial run-up in an oversold market to President Obama’s statement reiterating the US economic and military support to boost Pakistan’s economy, but late-selling chipped off a large part of 97 points gain in the benchmark as news of violence continued to pour in the market.

The KSE 100-share index finally ended with a fractional rise of 3.73 points at 9,595.24 after having touched the session’s high of 9,688.97. But on the other hand its junior partner the KSE 30-share index ended with an extended fall of 39.10 points at 9,981.34.

All is not well with the stock trading which needs investor confidence building measures at the official level, analysts believe, adding the highly erratic price movements are reflective of the inconsistency in the daily market behaviour.

“The undervalued shares where the chances of losses are minimum have assumed the role of a safe haven,” said a leading broker and added that no one was inclined to take even a calculated risk unless sanity returns to the share business.

KESC, PIAC, TRG Pakistan, Lafarge Pakistan and some others quoted in the range of Rs2.30 to Rs3.61 were now the hub of alternate buying and selling to avoid bigger financial losses in an uncertain market, he added.

Leading gainers were led by Unilever Pakistan and Treet Corporation, up by Rs123.21 and Rs15.62 followed by Tri-Pack Films, Dawood Hercules, Siemens Pakistan and PECO, which posted gains ranging from Rs5.07 to Rs11.

Notable losers included Unilever Foods and Nestle Pakistan, off by Rs58.89 and Rs27 and Pakistan Oilfields, HinoPak, Attock Refinery and Atlas Battery, which were marked down by Rs3.17 to Rs7.95.

Trading volume rose to 191.775m shares from the previous 137m shares bulk of which went to the credit of low-priced shares as losers held a slight edge over the gainers at 190 to 173, with 22 holding on to the last levels.

The active list was topped by Lotte Pakistan, lower 34 paisa at Rs11.11 on 21m shares followed by KESC, up 22 paisa at Rs3.25 on 18m shares, PIAC, firm by 54 paisa at Rs3.56 on 15m shares, TRG Pakistan, lower 21 paisa at Rs3.40 on 14m shares, Lafarge Pakistan, up 52 paisa at Rs2.82 on 13m shares, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, higher by 27 paisa at Rs32.65 on 10m shares and JS & Co, easy 40 paisa at Rs28.05 on 9m shares.

Bank of Punjab followed them, up Re1 at Rs19.42 on 6m shares, PTCL, easy six paisa at Rs19.57 on 5m shares and Netsol, up 20 paisa at Rs33.99 also on 5m shares.

FUTURE CONTRACTS:

Fatima Fertiliser remained under pressure and shed another 58 paisa at Rs12.96 on 3.922m shares followed by Bank Alfalah, steady by two paisa at Rs13.41 on 0.243m shares and Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, up 32 paisa at Rs32.77 on 0.160m shares.

Pakistan Oilfields remained under pressure and shed another Rs2.89 at Rs229.22 on 0.140m shares and D.G. Khan Cement, steady by seven paisa at Rs29.91 on 0.133m shares.

DEFAULTER COMPANIES:

Japan Power again led the list of actives, lower by 23 paisa at Rs2.71 on 1.711m shares, followed by Invest Bank, steady by four paisa at Rs1.59 on 42,014 shares, Genertech Power, firm three paisa at Rs0.77 on 14,780 shares.

Haydery Constructions followed them, easy by two paisa at Rs0.49 on 25,200 shares and Crescent Standard Modaraba, unchanged at Rs0.35 on 10,000 shares.