KARACHI, May 10: Stocks on Friday fell from the initial highs on selling triggered by some negative reports from the Hub-Power about a major generator transformer fault on its unit No.4 followed by the weekend profit-taking. The KSE index reacted to finish lower by 18.48 points at 1,798.46.

The market sentiment was also influenced bearishly by reports that the Indo-Pak military standoff may continue for the next couple of years. The report originating from the British think-tank also points to some internal problems relating to law and order situation.

But the chief factor behind the market’s reversal appears to be reports of some major generator fault on unit no.4 of the Hub-Power, which caused heavy selling in its share. And if the Hubco is down it could have negative impact on the entire market. The management claims, that it will put the generator in operation again within a short time to resume power supply.

Apart from weekend profit-taking the other negative factor was market talk that some of the members have exceeded their exposure limits and if prices fall further there could be settlement problems, dealers said.

Stock analysts fear that the market may take quite sometime to digest the shock of suicide bombing as the intriguing calm prevailing on the law and order front could mean anything for future investment in shares.

“The investor mood signals there is a possibility of further price decline as institutional traders alone could not keep the market in a good shape as they did on Thursday”, they said adding “it is a joint effort shared by all those who are in the arena”.

Stock analysts at the Aziz Fidahusein & Co say some negative reports about the slowdown in the process of privatization of major utilities including mega gas and energy companies also caused a good bit of selling on their respective counters under the lead of PSO, which fell further.

Minus signs dominated the list under the lead of PSO, Shell Pakistan, Glaxo-Wellcome Pakistan, BOC Pakistan, Attock Refinery and Wyeth Pakistan, which suffered fall ranging from Rs2 to Rs10.

Other prominent losers were led by Javed Omer, National Refinery, Aventis Pharma, Mustehkam Cement and Sitara Chemicals, off Rs1.50 to Rs2.05.

Some of the leading shares, however, did not follow the market’s general downturn and finished with modest to good gains under the lead of Shell Gas, Lever Brothers and Fateh Textiles, which posted gains ranging from Rs4 to Rs21.

Other good gainers were led by Crescent Sugar, Lakson and Pakistan Tobacco, Siemens Pakistan, and Treet Corporation, which rose by one rupee to Rs1.60.

Owing to heavy selling in Hub-Power, the volume figure rose to 161m shares from the previous 106m shares but losers maintained a fair lead over the gainers at 131 to 95, with 39 shares holding on to the last levels.

Hub-Power topped the list of actives, off 70 paisa at Rs23.95 on 79m shares followed by PTCL, lower 20 paisa at Rs17.60 on 36m shares, PSO, off Rs2.90 at Rs152.30 on 7m shares, FFC-Jordan Fertilizer, lower 45 paisa at Rs6.45 on 5m shares, KESC, easy 10 paisa at Rs5.05 on 4m shares and National Bank, lower 40 paisa at Rs19.25 on 3m shares.

Other actives were led by Sui Northern, lower 30 paisa on 4m shares, ICI Pakistan, off Rs1.85 on 3m shares, Adamjee Insurance, easy 15 paisa on 2m shares and Dewan Salman, off 55 paisa also on 2m shares.

FUTURE COMPANIES: Hub-Power also came in for heavy selling on the forward counter in sympathy with its ready counter and fell 75 paisa at Rs24.05 on 14.471m shares followed by PTCL, lower 25 paisa at Rs17.70 on 4.313m shares.