KARACHI, May 17: Stocks on Thursday passed through another lean session as liquidity problems continued to haunt investors as the SECP is silent on the KSE demand to increase the CFS limit to meet the growing demand of funds.

But some analysts said some other factors, including the law and order situation, judicial crisis and the absence of foreign investors from the market appears to be one of the chief reasons behind the current sluggishness.

The KSE 100-share index though fell well below the session’s high of 12,303.83 at 12,250.75, managed to cut larger fall and was down by only 8.10 points on late short-covering in some of the pivotals.

Owing to the developing situation both on the law and order and the corporate front, investors opted for low-priced shares in apparent effort to keep the wheel moving and to minimise losses in case the market fell to negative news. World Call Telecom, JS Bank and Telecard were leading among them.

“The investors may be facing some technical problems in the backdrop of various rumours, including the cut in number of shares on the CFS list, their chief worry appears to be fresh encouraging news,” analysts said.

As the news from the corporate front have dried up after the companies, whose financial years closed on March 31 ended, have already announced their working results including dividend and bonus shares, the market lacks morale booster from this sector.“The June 30 is still far away and in between investors are seeking safe havens but failed to find a supporting one,” said a broker adding “the sell-off date of PSO could provide a valid ground for a renewed rally.”

Among the top gainers, Pakistan Engineering and Rafhan Bestfoods were leading, up by Rs7.60 and 10, followed by Javedan Cement, Dawood Lawrence, Central Insurance, Exide-Pakistan, National Foods, Pakistan Engineering, Sanofi-Aventis, JWD Sugar and Pakistan Engineering, which posted gains ranging from Rs4 to 7.60.

Fazal Textiles and Siemens Pakistan were prominent losers, off Rs7.35 and 67, respectively. They were followed by Nestle Pakistan, EFU General, IGI Pakistan, Sapphire Textiles, Abbott Lab, IGI Insurance, and Attock Petroleum, which fell by Rs3.45 to 5.90.Trading volume fell to 170m shares from the previous 229m shares as gainers led losers by 171 to 156, with 47 shares holding on to the last levels.

Nishat Mills topped the list of actives, up one rupee at Rs130 on 15m shares followed by Bank AlFalah, up 80 paisa at Rs55.90 also on 15m shares, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, lower by 50 paisa at Rs35.75 on 12m shares, WorldCall Telecom, higher by 80 paisa at Rs15.55 on 10m shares, Lucky Cement, steady by 65 paisa at Rs98.15 also 10m shares, D.G.Khan Cement, lower 35 paisa at Rs95.10 on 7m shares, and JS Bank, up 35 paisa at Rs15.05 on 6m shares.

Other actives were led by Azgard Nine, up 65 paisa on 8m shares, Telecard, higher by 40 paisa on 6m shares and OGDC, steady by 10 paisa on 5m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: Bank AlFalah, led the list of actives on this counter, higher by 90 paisa at Rs56.05 on 6m shares, followed by Lucky Cement, up Rs1.60 at Rs99 on 4m shares, and Nishat Mills, firm by 40 paisa at Rs128.75 on 4m shares.