KARACHI, Jan 3: Stocks opened the new year account on a firm note as investors made fresh covering purchases on selected counters but finished with clipped gains on late-selling.

The KSE 100-share index scored a fresh fractional gain of 1.88 points and stood firm above the recently breached barrier at 6,220.28 after earlier hitting the day's best level of 6,251.

Late-selling in some of the overvalued shares may not be a prelude to a long-overdue technical correction, although bears make it like so in a highly overbought market.

According to an old adage an optimistic opening of the new account in January could well lead the market to the new highs during the whole year on basis of the strong opening. But unlike the previous years, the market's meteoric rise was not based on massive rise in the volume and investment on the carryover market at 550m shares and Rs.35.00 billion respectively, which signal a big retreat at any time,

The current run-up is being sustained on the strength of higher corporate earnings, an attractive bait of partial sell-off of state-owned units (the recent on the card being Kot Addu Power Company) and above market expectation performance of the banking and textile sectors.

Kot Addu share will be offered at Rs30 per share of Rs10 in small lots of 500 shares with a view to board-based the shareholding after taking into fold small investors.

"The market has certainly entered the high risk area but no one is inclined to warn the genuine investors to play safe until it meets its technical demands", a leading analyst said.

No one could deny the fact that banks would resume new funding but an avalanche of investment and volume on the carryover market could play havoc with the market if bears opt for profit-taking, he fears.

Bulk of the early buying was confined to MCB on strong buying apparently ahead of opening of its head office by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, National Bank, OGDC and some leading shares in cement and textile sectors.

Plus signs dominated the list under the lead of Shezan International, AKD Securities, Javed Omer, Artistic Denim, and International Industries, up Rs10.95 to Rs20.90 followed by Nishat Chunian, Arif Habib Securities, EFU General, Shell Pakistan, Atlas Honda and several others, higher by Rs5.55 to Rs9.

Losers were led by Bhanero Textiles, Lakson Tobacco, Gatron Industries, Treet Corporation, Pakistan Services and Nestle MilkPak, which suffered fall ranging from Rs5 to Rs7.95, largest decline of Rs25.95 being in Nestle MilkPak.

Trading volume fell from the weekend high of 606m shares to 527m shares but gainers maintained a strong lead over the losers at 206 to 176, with 60 shares holding on to the last levels.

MCB topped the list of actives, up by Rs2.60 at Rs61.30 on 66m shares, followed by Nishat Mills, higher by Rs3.65 at Rs81.05 on 54m shares, Bank of Punjab, up by Rs2.05 at Rs67.95.00 on 49m shares, OGDC, off 60 paisa at Rs74.35 on 43m shares and PTCL, up by 15 paisa at Rs4.35 on 35m shares.

Other actives included National Bank, up by Rs1.05 on 27m shares, Chakwal Cement, higher 90 paisa on 22m shares, Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim, easy 25 paisa also on 22m shares, Pak PTA, lower 35 paisa on 18m shares and Pakistan Oilfields, easy 60 paisa on 16m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: After having risen sharply during the last couple of sessions, PPL came in for stray selling and fell 15 paisa at Rs143.60 on 20m shares followed by PTCL, up by 20 paisa at Rs44.75 on 12m shares and Nishat Mills, sharply higher by Rs4.05 at Rs82.20 on 11m shares and OGDC, easy by 30 paisa at Rs75.05 on 6m shares. Others were modestly traded.

DEFAULTER COS: Crescent-Standard Bank again came in for strong support and rose by 60 paisa at Rs15 on 3.365m shares followed by Dandot Cement, easy 25 paisa at Rs9.30 on 0.133m shares and Unity Modaraba, unchanged at Rs1.65 on 0.111m shares.

DIVIDEND: Adam Sugar Mills, cash 10 per cent, Samin Textiles and Olympia Spinning, both nil for the year ended Sept 30, 2004.

BOARD MEETINGS: Gul Ahmed Textiles, on Jan 4, Shahpur Textiles, Dawood Fibre, Paramount Spinning, Gulshan Spinning, on Jan 5, Gulistan Textiles, Gulistan Spinning, ICC Textiles, Taj Textiles, Reliance Cotton, on Jan 6, Hafiz Textiles, on Jan 7, Sapphire Fibre, and Sapphire Textiles, on Jan 8.