KARACHI, Oct 4: Stocks on Friday shrugged off the previous easiness as leading investors and institutional traders covered positions at the lower levels aided largely by some positive developments on the disinvestment front of PSO. The KSE index recovered 15 points at 2,028.39.

The PSO sell-off may be a post-election affair but bargain-hunters and speculators are using it to their own benefit after circulating conflicting rumours, one broker said.

“How the political government view the PSO sell-off episode and whether or not it opt for it could be known after the national elections”, he adds.

The KSE 100-share index managed to sustain the coveted level of 2,000 despite several abortive bids by the bears to push it below the barrier. It finally ended at 2,028.39, up 14.93 points and demonstrated it could scale fresh highs if all goes well with the national elections on Oct 10.

There was no trace of the overnight sell-off caused by fears of war with India or US attack on Iraq as fresh developments on privatization front of PSO lured investors back in the ring.

Reports that bidding date of disinvestment of PSO is expected to be announced possibly by the next week, generated renewed activity in its shares amid active short-covering. Other energy shares, which had fallen in sympathy with PSO on Thursday also recovered smartly allowing the broader market to finish the weekend session on a firm note.

“I don’t think there will be a major change in the prevailing price trend in the sessions preceding the elections”, predicts a leading broker basing his assessment on the basic economic fundamentals “the war threat from India may be repeated time and again but there may not be a war at least for the next couple of months”.

This perception together with higher corporate earnings and lower level some of the leading blue chips still maintain could continue to inspire a lot of fresh buying from all and sundry.

And added to it will be the introduction of the “undisclosed trading system” from next Monday, which is expected to take away, to a great extent, the element of speculative trading.

Plus signs, therefore, dominated the list under the lead of Gatron Industries, General Tyre and Shell Pakistan, which posted gains ranging from Rs5.05 to Rs14.50. Other good gainers included Attock Refinery, Bolan Castings, Pak-Suzuki Motors, Abbott Lab and Glaxo-Wellcome, up by Rs2 to Rs2.95.

Losers were led by Siemens Pakistan, off Rs5 followed by Exide Pakistan, Cherat Cement, Berger Paints and Grays of Cambridge, lower by Rs1.05 to Rs1.55. Others fell fractionally.

Trading volume suffered a sharp fall as investors were not inclined to sell anticipating further increase in prices at 97m shares as compared to 153m shares a day earlier. Advancing shares forced a strong lead over the losing ones at 137 to 88, with 79 shares holding on to the last levels.

Hub-Power topped the list of most actives, up 45 paisa at Rs24.30 on 39m shares followed by PSO, higher by Rs1.25 at Rs197.30 on 17m shares, MCB, up by Rs1.10 at Rs28.95 on 11m shares, PTCL, easy five paisa at Rs19.75 on 7m shares, and Engro Chemical, firm by 35 paisa at Rs63.45 on 3m shares.

Other actives were led by Fauji Fetilizer, steady by 10 paisa on 2.270m shares, Adamjee Insurance, up by 30 paisa on 2.115m shares, ICI Pakistan, higher also by the same amount on 2.045m shares, Pak-Suzuki Motors, higher by Rs2.45 on 1.331m shares and ICP SEMF, firm by five paisa on 1.297m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: Hub-Power also led the most active scrips on the cleared list on heavy speculative support, up 35 by paisa at Rs24.35 on 7.123m shares followed by PSO, higher by Rs1.35 at Rs159.70 on 4.483m shares.