KARACHI, Oct 6: The current persistent run-up on the stock market was halted on Thursday as a section of investors took profits at the higher levels but the selling was well absorbed in low volumes. The KSE 100-share index reacted to close lower after having crossed the barrier of 8,600 points in early trading.

Being in a highly overbought position, the market needed a correction, which came in the form of profit-selling at the inflated levels. Fractional price changes in most of the market leaders show that the current run-up may not have been overdone.

Either-way fractional changes reflect the investor tendency to move from the overvalued shares to the low-priced ones, notably Pak PTA, Fauji Cement and Dewan Salman to minimize losses if the market takes a strong bearish turn from the current highs.

The KSE 100-share index suffered a setback of 41.44 points at 8,540.24, after having risen by about 500 points over the last couple of days but stood well above the newly attained higher level of 8,500, reflecting that the current run-up is not yet overdone.

Trading volume was, however, the major casualty as is customary with the advent of Ramazan in the absence of some leading speculators who take a technical pause for their personal reasons, brokers said.

There may be spurts here and there but the general activity was expected to remain sluggish during the month for obvious reasons.

They said that the correction was overdue but it was delayed by certain rumours, notably positive developments on the PTCL front, advent of foreign buying and increase in financing limits under the Continuous Financing System (CFS) to Rs40.

“I think small investors are again being trapped after squeezing the leading index shares,” says an analyst “there is no change in the basics at this time, which could warrant such a massive turnaround”.

There may be a massive retreat after having touched the index level of 9,000 as it was at the time when it had hit the so far all-time high of 10,300 early this year followed by the historic March collapse, leading to the low of 7,000 wiping out about Rs400 billion from the market capital, he added.

As usual there is no warning coming in from the relevant quarters and the run-up continues unabated to the all-time pre-record levels on the strength of a dozen leading base shares.

Oil, bank and some cement shares attracted profit-selling at the higher levels and led the market decline amid slow activity sans any big deal in the current volume leaders.

Pakistan Oilfields and Artistic Denim were leading among the gainers, up by Rs10.90 and Rs11.45, followed by Javedan and Mustehkam Cement, Attock Refinery, Allied Bank, Singer Pakistan, Bestway Cement and Suzuki Motor, which posted gains ranging from Rs2.10 to Rs5.15.

Nestle Pakistan and Wyeth Pakistan were prominent among the losers, off Rs13 to Rs25. Other notable losers being Arif Habib Securities, EFU Life, Blessed Textiles, Mehmood Textiles, PSO, BOC Pakistan and Shell Pakistan, off Rs3 to Rs6.85.

Trading volume fell to 297m shares from the overnight’s 522m shares as losers forced a strong lead over the gainers at 181 to 100, with 41 shares holding on to the last levels.

The most active list was topped by D.G.Khan Cement, up by 30 paisa at Rs81.15 on 44m shares, reflecting it has already touched the saturation point, OGDC, off 95 paisa at Rs121.35 on 37m shares, PTCL, lower 60 paisa at Rs63.50 on 31m shares, National Bank, off Re1 at Rs157.50 on 22m shares, Sui Northern Gas, up by Rs1.40 at Rs66.15 on 20m shares, Pakistan Petroleum, lower Rs2.20 at Rs206.40 on 16m shares and MCB, easy 20 paisa at Rs129.00 on 13m shares.

They were followed by Pak PTA, firm by 10 paisa on 11m shares, hereto inactive Dewan Salman, steady by 20 paisa on 10m shares and Fauji Cement, lower 40 paisa on 9m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: D.G. Khan Cement also led the list of leading shares on the cleared list, up by Re1 at Rs81.20 on 12m shares followed by Pakistan Oilfields, higher by Rs9.15 at Rs404.85 on 11m shares, Pakistan Petroleum, off Rs2.70 at Rs206.65 on 10m, OGDC, easy 90 paisa at Rs121.30 on 8m shares and PTCL, off 90 paisa at Rs64.10 on 8m shares.

DEFAULTER COS: Morafco Industries maintained its upward drive and rose by another Rs1.25 at Rs26.75, while Dewan Auto and Ghandhara Industries fell by Re1 and Rs2.45 at Rs12.30 and Rs46.55 respectively.

Unity Modaraba again came in for modest support and rose by five paisa at Rs12.95 on 0.140m shares, while all others were modestly traded.

DIVIDEND: Nishat Chunia, cash 20 per cent, bonus 10 per cent, Murree Brewery, cash 50 per cent, bonus 10 per cent, Natover Lease and Finance 15 per cent, Masood Textiles, 10 per cent, Reliance Weaving, cash 10 per cent, and Prudential Capital Management fund, 2.5 per cent.