KARACHI, June 12: The post-budget session of the share market on Thursday opened on a higher note as investors welcomed the fiscal relief but the initial buying euphoria could not be sustained owing to late profit-selling triggered by some pressing political irritants.

The chief beneficiaries of the fiscal relief, notably oil, banking and fertiliser sectors remained in strong demand as some of blue chips among them were subjected to upper locks, floor brokers said.

The market’s positive reaction to the new budget was, however, well-reflected in the early run-up of the KSE 100-share index, which shot up by 157 points to quote at the session’s high of 13,163.45. But it failed to sustain it on selling triggered by fears of violence owing to lawyers’ long march when it arrives in Islamabad.

It was finally ended with a modest rise of 9.26 points at 13,025.64 as some leading base shares came in for selling under the lead of National Bank.

The early run-up was attributed to sharp rise in some of the leading base shares led by MCB Bank, which was quoted higher by Rs4.07 at Rs309.97.

“The budget literally meets all the demands of investors and brokers, including tax exemption on capital gains tax for another two years, status quo on other corporate taxes such as capital value tax but now the only worry of the market was said to be political tensions,” analyst Ahsan Mehanti believes.

Analyst Faisal A. Rajabali attributed the late slowdown to withdrawal of financial support, said to be a tactical move to meet the market technical demands but at no stage it was felt that the current run-up is overdone.

He said the market had already absorbed a good part of the corporate tax relief in the pre-budget sessions after having pushed the index above the barrier of 13,000 points.

The investors will be back in the market after having full view of the fiscal measures and their likely negative or positive sympathetic impact on the share market, he added.Among the top gainers Bata Pakistan and Attock Petroleum were leading, up by Rs24.25 and Rs22.20, followed by Adamjee Insurance, Pakistan Refinery, National Refinery, Attock Refinery, PSO, Shell Gas, Dawood Hercules, Packages and HinoPak, which posted gains ranging from Rs7.43 to Rs18.99.

Exide Pakistan and EFU General Insurance were among the prominent losers, which fell by Rs8.70 and Rs8.50.

Others fell modestly barring Noon Pakistan, Mitchell’s Farms and Gillette Pakistan, off by Rs5.10 to Rs7.45.

Trading volume was light at 128m shares as leading investors were still in the process of analysing the taxation proposals as losers held a modest lead over the gainers at 162 to 135, with 34 shares holding on to the last levels.

Bank of Punjab led the list of actively traded shares, higher by Rs1.69 at Rs35.65 on 7m shares, followed by Fauji Fertiliser, one of the beneficiaries of budgetary relief along with banks and oil sectors, higher by Rs1.79 at Rs37.69 on 6m shares, Arif Habib Securities, lower by Rs1.11 at Rs172.69 also on 6m shares, Nishat Mills, off Rs1.49 at Rs100.50 on 5m shares, Engro Chemical, higher by Rs3.90 at Rs302 also on 5m shares, National Bank, lower by Rs2.05 at Rs177.50 also on 5m shares and OGDC, easy by five paisa at Rs309.97 on 4m shares.

Other actives included NIB Bank, lower by 27 paisa at Rs13.13 on 5m shares, and Pak PTA, easy by 25 paisa at Rs4.80 on 4m shares.

DEFAULTER COMPANIES: Norrie Textiles came in for active selling and led the list of actives, fractionally lower by two paisa at Rs2.36 on 1.073m shares followed by Zeal-Pak Cement, easy 10 paisa at Rs2.95 on 0.347m shares and Japan Power, lower by 10 paisa at Rs6.39 on 0.148m shares.