KARACHI, May 17: Stocks on Monday failed to extended the weekend rally as follow-up support turned shy in the absence of leading investors who remained busy with the Bank Al-Falah issue , which opened for public subscription. The KSE 100-share index shed 42.22 points at 5,412.47.

But some others attributed the reaction to late-selling prompted in sympathy with the current turmoil on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) followed by foreign fund unloadings amid fears of fiscal changes by the Congress-led government. The BSE has received massive battering during the post-Congress victory trading, which in turn has a negative fallout here also.

There may not be a beeline of investors for the Bank Al-Falah share, but a section of investors indulged in selling on some counters to line funds to invest in Bank Alfalah. Its share is being quoted around Rs65.00 against the face value of Rs30 including a premium of Rs20 since the last two weeks.

The KSE 100-share index finished with a fall of 42.22 points at 5,412.47 after at one stage breaching through the barrier of 5,400 at 5,383 but late covering purchases in the leading base shares allowed it to finish well above the day's low.

All the leading base shares fell across the board under the lead of OGDC, PTCL, Hub-Power and many others followed by cement shares, which ensure handsome capital gains at the current levels.

"It was a belated reaction to the Indian election upsets and the defeat of the Vajpayee government, considered as one of the chief exponents of peace between the two neighbours", analysts said adding "peace talks may continue but there are two opinions about the positive outcome".

"The Indo-Pak relations under the Congress may not be that ideal for various reasons including previous records but much has changed since then", some others said "the new Indian government may have to be guided by some rigid rules of the game in the vastly changed political scenario."

Floor brokers said much of the activity on the stock market will be guided by the reports from across the borders, notably the behaviour of the BSE, which now is under foreign fund liquidation. Foreign investment on it is around $7 billion.

The interesting feature was that leading shares came in for active selling some of the hereto neglected and those which are facing the shortage of a floating stock showed good gains.

Losers were led by Security Papers, Gatron Industries, Arif Habib Securities, Aventis, Siemens Pakistan, Unilever Pakistan and Parke-Davis, which suffered fall ranging from Rs8 to Rs35.

Other notable losers included BOC Pakistan, International Industries, Javed Omer, Burewala Textiles and some others, which posted fall to the extent of Rs3.85 to Rs7.60.

But on the other hand Artistic Denim, National Foods, Murree Brewery, Fazal Textiles, Adamjee Insurance, Thal and Grays of Cambridge, managed to put on good gains to the extent of Rs4 to Rs15. Trading volume fell to 455.149m shares from the previous 481m shares as losers forced a strong lead over the gainers at 187 to 113, with 42 shares holding on to the last levels.

The most active list was topped by D.G. Khan Cement, up by 90 paisa at Rs60.70 on 63m shares followed by Fauji Cement, easy 25 paisa at Rs16.95 on 58m shares, OGDC, lower 10 paisa at Rs67.55 on 36m shares, PTCL, off 30 paisa at Rs43.25 on 30m shares, Hub-Power, lower 55 paisa at Rs34.00 on 18m shares.

Other actives were led by Saadi Cement, unchanged on 30m shares, Lucky Cement, off 50 paisa on 24m shares, Maple Leaf Cement, easy 35 paisa on 23m shares, Zeal Pak Cement, up by Rs1.40 on 17m shares and TRG Pakistan, up by 25 paisa on 17m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: In sympathy with the ready section, speculative issues on the forward counter also came in for active selling and ended lower under the lead of PTCL and Bank Al-Falah, off 35 paisa and Rs3.20 at Rs43.30 and Rs61.75 on 7m shares each.