KARACHI, May 10: Stocks on Thursday turned mixed as a section of investors took profits on selected counters owing to prevailing tension ahead of Saturday’s proposed rallies by the political parties and fears of law and order situation.
The market’s cautious mood was also well-reflected in sharp decline in the trading volume in the absence of leading foreign funds and bargain-hunters.
The KSE 100-share index shed 46.39 points at 12,346.89 as compared to 12,393.28 a day earlier as leading base shares finished further lower under the lead of OGDC and Bank Alfalah.
The free-float 30-share index showed a bigger fall of 131.03 points at 15,304.42 as some of the industrial shares remained under pressure for the second day in a row.
The sharp decline in the turnover after brisk activity during the last couple of sessions worried investors as it reflects a temporary withdrawal of foreign support obviously for technical reasons, analysts said.
But some others said the prevailing tension ahead of the Chief Justice Karachi’s visit on Saturday and MQM’s rally on the same day and fears of law and order situation kept foreign investors away.
Apart from two opinions about the outcome of judicial crisis, corporate background news are mostly positive but investors are likely to play safe and will be back after the current tension is defused.
But all was not bad with the broader market as cement shares resisted fresh decline on the strength of higher exports and so did banks on reports of sharp increase in interim earnings.
Nishat Mills, whose board meeting due next week, maintained its upward drive for the fourth session in a row and had risen by Rs20 and was last quoted at Rs128 amid market talk of higher payout.
National Refinery and Siemens Pakistan were among the top gainers, up by Rs16.15 and Rs46 followed by Arif Habib Securities, Habib-Metropolitan Bank, EFU General, Fazal Textiles, Pakistan Tobacco, Mari Gas, Glaxo-SKF, Sitara Chemical, Packages and Attock Petroleum, which rose by Rs5.75 to Rs13.05.
Adamjee Insurance and Unilever Pakistan, off by Rs9 and Rs10. Other notable losers included National Bank, MCB, Indus Dyeing, Sapphire Textiles, Pakistan Petroleum, Mirpurkhas Sugar, Pakistan Oilfields and National Food, off by Rs3 to Rs8.25.
Turnover figure shrank to 252m shares from the previous 322m shares but gainers managed to hold a modest edge over the losers at 167 to 160, with 43 shares holding on to the last levels.
D.G. Khan topped the list of actives, lower 55 paisa at Rs101.70 on 21m shares, Lucky Cement, unchanged at Rs102.50 on 17m shares, Nishat Mills,
higher by Rs2.90 at Rs128 also on 17m shares, Hub-Power, lower 40 paisa at Rs33 on 13m shares, OGDC, of 85 paisa at Rs119.15 on 12m shares, WorldCall Telecom, steady by 10 paisa at Rs14.90 on 10m shares and Bank Alfalah, off Rs1.40 at Rs55.15 on 8m shares.
Other actives were led by Arif Habib Securities, up by Rs6 on 10m shares, PICIC, higher by Rs2 on 8m shares and Telecard, easy by five paisa also on 8m shares.
FORWAED COUNTER: Lucky Cement led the list of actives on this counter, easy by 15 paisa at Rs102.85 on 8m shares, Nishat Mills, higher by Rs1.40 at Rs125.90 on 7m shares and Hub-Power, lower 30 paisa at Rs32.70 on 6m shares.
Other actives included D.G. Khan Cement, lower 55 paisa at Rs101.95 on 6m shares and OGDC, off Rs1.15 at Rs119.55 on 4m shares.
DEFAULTER COS: Active trading was also witnessed on this counter as seven shares came in for alternate bouts of buying and selling under the lead of S.S. Oil, which posted a fresh gain of Re1 at Rs12 on 0.437m shares.
Nimir Chemical followed it, easy 10 paisa at Rs3.35 on 0.397m shares, Japan Power, lower five paisa at Rs4.20 on 0.156m shares and Norrie Textiles, unchanged at Rs2.60 on 0.147m shares.
Zeal-Pak Cement, Quice Foods and Mukhtar Textiles were quoted fractionally lower on modest turnover.