KARACHI, Jan 9: Stocks on Friday recovered from the overnight lows on active short-covering in most of the pivotals aided partly by expectations of peace with India in the backdrop of the current overtures and partly to positive news from the economic front.
There was no trace of the overnight nervousness caused by fears of further delay in the final bidding date of PSO after the Kuwait Supreme Council advised the Kuwait Petroleum Company to consider other options before making investment in Pakistan's retail fuel market as investors re-entered the market with fresh buystops.
The KSE 100-share index ended with an extended gain of 6.13 points at 4,570.15 as late selling owing to weekend considerations pushed it down from the day's highest bid.
Owing to initial euphoria, it hit the day's peak level of 4,596.00 in the morning session, only eight points below its all-time high record of 4,604.00 set in last September but weekend selling in the afternoon session allowed it finish with clipped gains.
"It is heading not only to better its previous all-time high record but also to establish a new one on the strength of stepped up peace overtures between Pakistan and India amid predictions of increase in intra-regional trade," analysts said.
Some more well-informed among them are eyeing the next coveted level of 5,000 during the next couple of months followed by predictions of advent of strong foreign buying after the signing of Indo-Pakistan peace treaty on Kashmir and other contentious issues possibly by next month.
In the backdrop of recent developments, notably in the Saarc summit investors have changed their new year buying, some of the second-liners having potential of capital appreciation being there in forefront of major gainers.
"It may not be at bigger scale, foreign investors are already in the market and lifting selected stocks at the lower levels," one broker claims "most of them are making long-term investment on the perception of Indo-Pakistan peace."
Cement, auto, energy shares and some blue chips on the other counters, which received heavy battering overnight came in for renewed selling and finished with an extended fall and so did some of the blue chips.
Reports that International General Insurance (IGI) plans to invest Rs200 million in the shares of Packages, Nestle MilkPak and Tri-Pack Films at the market price evoked a lot of interest in these shares.
Plus signs dominated the list under the lead of Ferozsons Lab, IGI and Javed Omer, which posted gains ranging from Rs6 to Rs17.60 followed by Lakson Tobacco, Merit Packaging, Nestle MilkPak, Dawood Hercules, Jahangir Siddiqui & Co and its bank and Siemens Pakistan, which rose by Rs4 to Rs5.
Prominent losers were led by Parke-Davis, which suffered a fresh fall of Rs35 on renewed selling. Others leading losers included Sapphire Textiles, National Refinery, Haroon Oils, Shell Pakistan, Indus Motors, Treet Corporation and Pakistan Services, off Rs2 to Rs6.
Trading volume shrank further to 232m shares from the previous 240m shares but gainers maintained a fair lead over the losers at 178 to 148, with 49 shares holding on to the last levels.
PTCL topped the list of actives, up by 35 paisa at Rs37.25 on 62m shares followed by Sui Northern Gas, higher by 50 paisa at Rs44.30 on 24m shares, Pakistan Oilfields, off Rs1.80 at Rs231.20 on 11m shares, Bosicor Pakistan, firm by 40 paisa at Rs25.40 on 9m shares, and Hub-Power, up by 20 paisa at Rs33.80 also on 9m shares.
Other actives were led by Bank of Punjab, unchanged on 8m shares, Dewan Motors, off 35 paisa also on 8m shares, Sui Southern, easy 10 paisa on 7m shares, FF Bin Qasim, off 35 paisa on 6m shares and ICP SEMF, lower 20 paisa also on 6m shares.
FORWARD COUNTER: OGDCL came in for active support and rose by 65 paisa at Rs53.50 on 69m shares followed by PTCL, up 30 paisa at Rs37.30 on 5m shares, and Sui Northern Gas, up by 65 paisa at Rs44.60 on 4m shares. But on the other hand PSO was further marked down by Rs1.35 at Rs281.50 and FF Bin Qasim by 35 paisa at Rs18.45 on 4m and 3m shares respectively.
DEFAULTER COS: Fidelity Bank again came in for active support and rose to close higher by Rs1.50 at Rs10.05 on 1.060m shares followed by Standard Bank, higher by 40 paisa at Rs8 on 0.491m shares and Quice Foods, easy 10 paisa at Rs1.50 on 0.204m shares. Some others were also actively traded on the higher side.
DIVIDEND: Janana De Malucho Textiles, cash 30 per cent, Bannu Woollen, 30 per cent, Babri Cotton, 25 per cent, Hussein Industries, 25 per cent, Sapphire Fibre, 15 per cent, Sunrays Textiles, 10 per cent, Dars-es-Salaam Mills, Mehran Sugar, Khyber Textiles, Saritow Spinning, Sally Textiles and Al-Qadir Textiles, all nil for the year ended Sept 30, 2003.