KARACHI, Sept 25: The stock market on Thursday turned in a relatively improved performance as some of the leading shares came in for active short-covering at the lower levels and ended modestly higher amid dull activity as the market will remain closed on Friday on account of Jumatul Wida.

The KSE board was in the meeting till late in the evening to review the floor and whether or not it should be removed or stay but there was no official word on the final word or its fate.

There was a loud whispering in the corridors of the KSE that the final decision on the ‘floor’ may be announced after the return of the president from the US in couple of days.“A good part of the foreign selling is still floating here and there and may sneak in the system after the removal of the floor, pushing the index further lower,” analyst Tabish H. Rajabali fears, adding “till then the floor may stay”.

On the monetary front, he said massive government borrowing would eventually fuel the inflation. The recent increase in return on saving schemes could cause fresh outflow of fresh funds from the market to fixed return saving schemes, he added.

Ahsan Mahanti said there was on immediate negative impact on the banking sector followed government bond downgrading by the Moody’s as investors were worried over so many pressing issues.

Trading volume hit a new single-session all-time low at 2.477m shares as compared to previous 2.792m shares as the covering purchases remained confined to selected shares and that too on a modest scale.

However gainers held a modest lead over the losers at 18 to eight, with 82 shares holding on to the last levels.

The KSE 100-share index fell by 6.60 points at 9,184.15 as compared to 9,190.75 a day earlier, despite the relative strength of some leading base shares, but on the other hand the KSE 30-share index was held unchanged at 10,064.44 points.

Some of the leading base shares, notably MCB Bank, PSO, Bank Alfalah and OGDC came in for active support and finished steady limiting the fall in the index.

Leading gainers were led by some of the leading auto shares, notably Millat Tractors and Al-Ghazi Tractors, up by Rs11.24 and Rs8.40 followed by Asset Leasing, Bolan Casting, Agriautos, Pak Datacom and National Foods, up by Re1 to Rs2.63.

Losses on the other hand were mostly fractional barring Royal Bank and Pak Elektron, off by Rs153 and Rs1.25, followed by Al-Noor Modaraba, Eye TV and Meezan Fund, which were marked down by 30 to 66 paisa.Among the actively traded shares, Engro Chemical was leading, unchanged at Rs180.44 on 0.375m shares followed by Southern Electric, also unchanged at Rs3.90 on 0.337m shares, OGDC, unchanged at Rs94.43 on 0.171m shares, Nishat Chunnian, unchanged at Rs12.78 on 0.143m shares, B.R.R. Modaraba, unchanged at Rs5.60 on 0.140m shares, Habib Modaraba, also unchanged at Rs6.49 on 0.100m shares and Orix Bank, static at Rs3.08 on 0.100m shares.

Colony Sugar Mills followed them, static at Rs48 on 0.100m shares, Netsol Technologies, also static at Rs57 on 0.100m shares and National Asset Leasing, up by 13 paisa at 53 paisa on 0.98m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: PSO came in for active support but held unchanged at Rs271.79 on 0.190m shares followed by Bank Alfalah, also unchanged at Rs31.69 on 0.131m shares and MCB Bank, unchanged at Rs238.26 on 0.128m shares.

Attock Refinery followed them, unchanged at Rs141 on 0.92m shares and Hub-Power, static at Rs20.90 on 0.50m shares.

DEFAULTER COMPANIES: National Asset Leasing came in for stray support and was marked up by 13 paisa at 53 paisa on 97,500 shares followed by Bawany Sugar, up nine paisa at Rs3.50 on 500 shares and Al-Asif Sugar, steady by one paisa at Rs4.15 on 6,000 shares. Zeal Pak Cement, Quice Foods and Indus Polyester were traded at the last levels.

DIVIDEND: Rupali Polyester, cash 30 per cent, Ellcot Spinning, cash 15 per cent, Premium Textiles, cash 10 per cent, Muhammad Farooq Textiles, Dawood Equities, PTCL, Pakistan Synthetics and Latif Jute, all nil for the year ended June 30, 2008.