KARACHI, Feb 24: Stocks on Tuesday resisted fresh decline as bulls resumed their covering operations at the overnight lows under the lead of financial institutions followed by reports of higher interim earnings. The KSE 100-share index recovered 30.26 points at 4,786.85.
Although the fresh fall in shares was averted despite early sell-off, the rally remained inconclusive as the losing shares maintained a modest edge over the advancing ones, although the index managed to finish higher on the strength of leading base shares.
Bulk of the short-covering remained confined to the leading base shares, notably PTCL, Hub Power, PSO and some other energy shares, notably Shell Pakistan on active short-covering at the overnight lower levels.
Reports about the privatization, notably Pakistan Petroleum and some others during the coming months was another supporting factor for the resumption of the bull market.
The opening was, however, a bit bearish what the dealers called the extension of the overnight sell-off but the mid-session's avalanche of buying orders put the market back on the road. Earlier, the index was down by 54 points but luckily did not fell below the barrier of 4,700 points.
The KSE 100-share index finished with a smart recovery of 30.26 points at 4,786.85 as compared to 4,756.59 a day earlier as all the leading base shares ended close to their pre-reaction levels.
"Bears have been on the look out for some negative news to correct the prevailing statistical imbalance in an highly overbought market," analysts said and lower than market expectations corporate announcements by some of the leading energy companies gave them the chance to strike back.
But the bear honeymoon with the negative forces proved short-lived as bulls relying on the most of positive fundamentals have the reasons not to be outwitted at this stage, they said.
Most analysts predict the market may not fall back from the current levels after touching the high mark of 5,000 point index level. "It has already confidently absorbed the negative fallout of the nuclear issue no other bigger depressant could halt its upward drive."
Positive news from the cement cartel about an increase in production quota after reports of its break up also generated a lot of buying in cement shares at the lower levels and so did most of the energy scrips, which had received massive battering a day earlier owing to below market interim dividend of 10 per cent by Attock Refinery.
Among the prominent gainers, Nestle MilkPak was leading, up Rs18.05 followed by Javed Omer, Clover Pakistan, PSO, Shall Pakistan, Sitara Chemical, and Arif Habib Securities, which posted gains ranging from Rs3.10 to Rs16.05. Kohat and DG Khan Cement along with others also rose.
Losers were led by Security Papers, Aventis, Siemens Pakistan, Parke-Davis and IGI Insurance, off Rs5 to Rs12.50, while Jahangir Siddiqui Bank, Sapphire Fibre, Dreamworld, Pakistan Oilfields, Pakistan Refinery and Dawood Hercules were marked down by Rs2.75 to Rs6.80.
Trading volume rose to 314m shares from the previous 235m shares but losers held a modest lead over the gainers at 157 to 146, with 33 shares holding on to the last levels.
The active list was topped by PTCL, up 50 paisa at Rs39.50 on 37m shares followed by OGDC, higher by Rs1.25 at Rs50.20 on 31m shares, DG Khan Cement, up Rs2.05 at Rs45.65 on 28m shares, PIAC, firm by 50 paisa at Rs24.90 on 18m shares, Maple Leaf Cement, up Rs1.90 at Rs34 on 17m shares.
Other actives were led by Dewan Salman, easy 15 paisa on 17m shares, ICP SEMF, up Rs1.25 on 14m shares, Sui Northern Gas, firm by 30 paisa on 12m shares, Hub-Power, higher 35 paisa also on 12m shares and PSO, up Rs3.10 on 12m shares.
FORWARD COUNTER: PTCL came in for active short-covering at the lower level and rose by 42 paisa at Rs39.43 on 4m shares, followed by PSO, up Rs3.05 at Rs287.30 also on 4m shares, Pakistan Capital Market Fund, higher by 30 paisa at Rs9.85 on 3.478m shares, FF Bin Qasim, up 20 paisa at Rs19.65 on 3m shares and Hub-Power, higher 25 paisa at Rs38.50 on 2,584m shares.
The forward March settlements also followed the lead of their counterpart and finished higher, major gainer among them being Fauji Fertilizer, up Rs1.25 at Rs104.50.
DEFAULTER COS: Mukhtar Textiles came in for modest support and rose by 20 paisa at Rs4.20 on 0.131m shares followed by Crescent Board, higher one rupee at Rs7 on 0.110m shares and Standard Bank, firm by 30 paisa at Rs8.00 on 0.105m shares. All others were fractionally traded but mostly on the higher side.