KARACHI, Oct 3: Stocks on Thursday remained under pressure as war threat from India and an imminent US attack on Iraq after the congressional approval triggered hasty selling from leading investors. The KSE-100 index shed 16.30 points at 2,013.46.
The opening was, however, fairly encouraging thanks to active follow-up support from leading investors as well as the financial institutions, lifting the KSE index to a new peak level of 2,040. At this level some one floated the rumour about the delay in the sell-off of PSO followed by active selling in it and all the other leading base shares.
Institutional traders and some leading financial institutions did try to keep the market in a positive mood after injecting heavy cash amounts in the low-priced pivotals but bears finally managed to prevail.
Bulk of the selling was confined to the oil shares, notably PSO, Shell Pakistan and some others owing to hasty liquidation by short-term dealers amid fears of war, although in normal conditions they should have risen because of a possible disruption in supplies.
The KSE 100-share index eroded a good part of the overnight gain and was quoted lower by 16.30 points at 2,013.46, after briefly touching the day’s best bid of 2,040.
Stocks analysts were expecting the continuation of the current speculative run till the middle of the next week as barring some external inhabitants, local fundamentals were fairly encouraging to build-up long positions on selected counters.
“War threat as a last resort to check alleged cross-border infiltration into the held Kashmir by the Indian minister and the US Congress approval for president Bush on his Iraq policy rang alarm bells the world over and consequent hasty liquidation”, they added.
However, the satisfying feature was that there were buyers at the dips on most of the counters, reflecting long-term investor perceptions are positive about the future market direction.
Rumours of a bit delay in the privatization of PSO, possibly after the national elections and when the new political set up is in place also worked against the sentiment. But there was no official word on the rumoured bidding on Oct 8.
Among the prominent gainers, Berger Paints, IGI Insurance, Gatron Industries, General Tyre and Pakistan Reinsurance Company, up by Rs2 to Rs35.
Others, which rose included Nafees Cotton, Gul Ahmed Textiles, Hussein Sugar, Lakson Tobacco, Al-Ghazi Tractors and Millat Tractors, up Rs1.05 to Rs2.
Losers were led by Pakistan Oilfields, Shell Pakistan, PSO, Wyeth Pakistan and Siemens Pakistan, off Rs2.30 to Rs9. Noon Pakistan, Sitara Chemicals, Exide Pakistan, Pakistan Tobacco, Cherat Papers and Mari Gas also fell by Rs1.15 to Rs2.
Trading volume rose to 153m shares from the previous 111m shares as losers forced a strong lead over the gainers at 171 to 77, with 81 shares holding on to the last levels. PSO came in for active selling followed by rumours of delay in its sell-off and finished lower by Rs4.45 at Rs196.05 on 40m shares followed by Hub-Power, easy five paisa at Rs23.85 on 23m shares, PTCL, lower 20 paisa at Rs19.80 on 15m shares, MCB, down 30 paisa at Rs27.85 on 13m shares, Sui Northern Gas, unchanged at Rs15.45 on 11m shares and Adamjee Insurance, sharply lower by Rs2.10 at Rs44.00 on 7m shares.
Engro Chemical, followed them, lower 35 paisa on 7.163m shares, Fauji Fertilizer, up 30 paisa on 6.424m shares, ICP SEMF, lower 55 paisa on 5.735m shares and ICI Pakistan, off 40 paisa on 2.897m shares.
FORWARD COUNTER: PSO also came in for heavy selling on the forward counter and fell by Rs4.05 at Rs158.35 on a large volume of about 11m shares followed by PTCL, easy 15 paisa at Rs19.95 on 3m shares and Hub-Power, unchanged at Rs24 on 2.284m shares.
Fauji Fertilizer also attracted good support on reports of higher earning and rose by 40 paisa at Rs55.90 on 1.061m shares. Others were moderately traded.
DEFAULTER COMPANIES: Shares of a dozen companies came in for active two-way trading under the lead of Quice Foods, easy 10 paisa at Rs1.15 on 15,000 shares followed by Custodian Modaraba, unchanged on 10,000 shares and Metropolitan Steel, lower 30 paisa at Rs3.05 on 5,500 shares.
BOARD MEETINGS: Hala Enterprises on Oct 8, Faysal Bank, Punjab Modaraba and Rafhan Maize on Oct 9.