KARACHI, April 12: Share market on Thursday consolidated previous gains as investors have an overview of their inventories before making fresh commitments but profit-selling was well-absorbed as was reflected by a fresh modest rise of 11 points in the KSE 100-share index at 11,906.The market may opt for another technical correction but leading analysts predict “not before crossing the Rubicon and hereto an elusive goal of 12,000 index level despite resumption of hearing on the presidential reference”.
The last three sessions’ sustained run-up slightly slowed down as a section of speculative traders took profit at the higher levels on cement, oil and some bank shares.
Although financial investors and foreign funds mostly held on to their positions, bulk of profit-selling originated from the locals ahead of resumption of hearing in the Supreme Judicial Council on the presidential reference against the Chief Justice from Friday.
“Fearing law and order situation after the court proceedings resume as lawyers have vowed to continue their protest against the government action, investors notably weakholders played safe,” analysts said.The market is expected to resume its upward drive possibly by the next trading week if all goes well in Islamabad, they added. But some others said although inflow of leverage holdings continued for the second day in a row, there was a strong possibility that the KSE 100-share index may react in the afternoon session after having hit its next target of 12,000 points.
After early hitting the session’s peak level of 11,964.08, the KSE 100-share witnessed a mid-session profit-taking and ended with a clipped gain of 10.96 points at 11,905.92 points. The KSE 30-share index also rose by 9.61 points at 14,830.06 but well below the day’s highest of 14,931.74.
Much of the selling remained confined to the current favourites - cement, bank and oil shares - but there were buyers at each dip indicating that the run-up was not overdone. The fractional fall in most of the actives reflects there is no panic among the investors as the selling was of a routine nature.
Analysts attributed the reversal to technical factors, which was overdue in the market overbought position but presence of strong foreign support at each dip reflected that locals would follow-up possibly by the next week.
Some of the leading shares, whose floating stock was terribly short, rose under the lead of Siemens Pakistan and Wyeth Pakistan, up by Rs37 and Rs87. They were followed by Shaheen Insurance, Mirpurkhas Sugar, Dawood Hercules, Gillette Pakistan, Treet Corporation, Sanofi-Aventis and Pak-Suzuki Motors, up by Rs5.60 to Rs18.70.
Shell Gas and Unilever Pakistan led the list of prominent losers, off by Rs12 and Rs48 followed by EFU General, Pakistan Engineering, National Foods, Packages and AKD Securities, off by Rs5 to Rs6.95.
Trading volume was maintained on the higher side at 298m shares as compared to previous 311m shares, but losers forced a modest lead over the gainers at 171 to 158, with 39 shares holding on to the last levels.
Among the most actives, Bank of Punjab was leading, higher by Rs2.20 at Rs96.30 on 35m shares followed by Lucky Cement, up by Rs1.25 at Rs96.85 on 25m shares, Askari Bank, firm by Rs1.50 at Rs87.20 on 22m shares, Bank Alfalah, steady by 60 paisa at Rs48.40 on 18m shares and D.G. Khan Cement, lower by Rs1.70 at Rs94.85 on 17m shares.
Among the other actives, PTCL was leading, easy by 25 paisa at Rs52.25 on 13m shares, Pakistan Petroleum, lower 70 paisa at Rs261 also on 13m shares, Pakistan Cement, unchanged at Rs12.95 on 12m shares, Fauji Cement, easy 50 paisa at Rs19.05 on 11m shares and Dewan Cement, up by 75 paisa at Rs16 also on 11 shares.
FORWARD COUNTER: OGDC led the list of actives on the cleared list, up by 80 paisa at Rs120.75 on 14m shares, followed by Lucky Cement, firm by Re1 at Rs97.25 on 11m shares and Bank of Punjab, higher by Rs2.30 at Rs96.60 on 6m shares.
They were followed by National Bank, of Rs4.40 at Rs244.35 on 6m shares and Bank Alfalah, up by 75 paisa at Rs48.65 on 5m shares. Others were modestly traded.
DEFAULTER COS: Norrie Textiles came in for modest selling and was marked down by 30 paisa at Rs3.20 on 0.327m shares followed by Zeal-Pak Cement, lower 20 paisa at Rs5.50 on 0.304m shares and Nimir Chemicals, steady by five paisa at Rs2.55 on 0.146m shares.