KARACHI, Sept 6: After three earlier abortive bids, the KSE 100-share index on Friday confidently breached through the psychological barrier of 2,000 points as leading base shares joined hands to outwit the bears that too at weekend session.
“Its onward journey now appears a bit smooth as bears will take quite sometime to muster support to play a negative role in a market heading for a major breakthrough”, stock analysts said.
As a sharp decline in the turnover figure suggests, leading among the bears may be licking their wounds sitting somewhere in the corridors of the KSE premises.
But leading bears contend the margin above the 2,000 point index level is too small and it could be reversed any time next week, others think it may not be now that easy as the bulls have vowed to sustain it at any cost.
The KSE 100-share index closed the weekend session at 2,008.86, up 16.84 points and added Rs3.337bn to the market capitalization at Rs461.921bn. Both figures are billed at three-year highs.
Stock analysts predict as the rubicon has finally been crossed the next target of the index could be 2,200 point and as the developing financial scenario indicate higher corporate announcements could boost it to this level prior to national elections in October.
Sell-off of controlling shares of the United Bank to a Dubai-based consortium at Rs12.35 billion in rebidding also stimulated a lot of buying in shares currently under privatization.
“What seems to have added to the current buying euphoria is the perception of continuity in the current financial policies even after the elections and steady inflow of foreign funds”, they added.
The chief supporting factor behind the bull victory was said to be positive news on privatization of oil giant Pakistan State Oil (PSO) after the names of prospective buyers were officially announced. Along with PTCL, it carried the entire market along with it above the coveted index level of 2,000.
PSO itself finished around Rs203.20, up Rs4.20 after hitting the day’s best bid at Rs204.60 on a volume of 19m shares at this higher rate.
But Hub-Power continued to inspire post-dividend profit-selling and ended further shaded after an initial rise but other pivotals ended with fresh gains on active support despite weekend considerations.
Plus signs dominated the list under the blue chips, which rose in unison on strong buying at the still lower levels, energy shares being in strong demand followed by chemical and cement ones.
Leading gainers were led by Central Insurance, PSO, Attock Refinery, Shell Gas, Clover Pakistan, BOC Pakistan and Siemens Pakistan, which posted gains ranging from Rs4 to Rs10 amid active trading boosted by reports of higher earnings.
Losers were led by Sapphire Fibre, Karam Ceramics, Aventis Pharma, Faran Sugar, Javed Omer, Pakistan Oilfields and Colgate Pakistan, off one rupee to Rs3.
Trading volume fell to 136m shares from 200m shares as sellers were not inclined to part with their stocks in anticipation of further capital appreciation. Gainers held a comfortable lead over the losers at 140 to 91, with 72 shares holding on to the last levels.
PTCL topped the list of most actives, up 30 paisa at Rs20.75 on 37m shares followed Hub-Power, easy five paisa at Rs27.95 on 27m shares, MCB, higher by Rs1.80 at Rs27.20 on 20m shares, PSO, up by Rs4.20 at Rs203.20 on 19m shares, National Bank, firm by 30 paisa at Rs24.10 on 4m shares Adamjee Insurance, up one rupee at Rs43.70 on 3m shares and D.G. Khan Cement, steady 20 paisa at Rs12.15 also on 3m shares.
Other actives were led by PaK PTA, unchanged on 3m shares, Telecard, higher 30 paisa also on 3m shares and ICI Pakistan, up 40 paisa on 2.508m shares.
CLEARED LIST: Speculative issues on the forward counter also followed the lead of the ready section and generally rose under the lead of MCB, up Rs1.70 at Rs27.40 on 0.791m shares.
Among the volume leaders Hub-Power was leading, easy 10 paisa at Rs28 on 8m shares followed by PSO, up Rs4.90 at Rs204 on 4.228m shares and PTCL, higher by 35 paisa at Rs20.45 on 2.908m shares.
DEFAULTER COMPANIES: Brisk trading was witnessed on this counter amid reports of takeover bids. About two dozen shares came in for trading under the lead of Mehran Modaraba, up 25 paisa at Rs1.50 on 0.150m shares followed by Custodian Modaraba, higher 85 paisa at Rs3.10 on 25,000 shares and Suzuki Motorcycles, lower 25 paisa at Rs4.50 on 9,000 shares. Others were also actively traded.