KARACHI, Oct 20: The stock market on Monday again resumed trading on a dull note as investors were not enthused by the weekend positive steps taken by the State Bank to arrest the falling value of the rupee and to ease the liquidity crunch of the banks.

Analysts said economic worries, notably foreign press reports pointing to a possible default on foreign credits continued to take their toll in the form of low volumes and absence of buyers even at the current lower levels.

“Pakistan needs immediately $3 to $4 billion to avert any major financial crisis on foreign debts,” they said. “Various options including the IMF are said to be under official considerations”.

That is perhaps why the widely speculated revival of fund buying was not visible on any of the counter as was reflected by a fresh fall in the turnover figure to a new single-session low of 0.177m shares as compared to weekend’s 0.193m shares.

The KSE 100-share index, however, managed to put on a fractional rise of 0.51 points at 9,184.75 as compared to 9,184.24 at the last weekend, but the KSE 30-share index remained static at 10,042 for the sixth session in a row and so did the KMI-30 shares index at 11,224.18.

“There is a loud whispering in the trading hall that the official fund buying may re-emerge after the index tumbles 20 per cent or to the level of off-the-floor current transactions,” said a leading stock analyst Tabish H. Rajabali. “The removal of the floor on the index on Oct 27, would give a fair idea about the future direction of the market,” he added.

The margin calls by the banks on the some of the massively leveraged brokers also worried the investors and arrangements are being made by the officials to avert possible default on the part of any one of them.

Analyst Hasnain Asghar Ali said the easing of monetary policy by the statement after having reduced cash margin requirements but the instructions to maintain advance/deposit ratio at 70 per cent may hinge credit expansion.

“With Oct 27 drawing closer, the committed market support funds need to be arranged as the post-floor market could witness heavy foreign sell-off and blue chips will be available at well over 20 per cent discount,” he added.

Price changes were, therefore, mostly fractional, reflecting the absence of both leading brokers and sundry speculators, but some of the undervalued shares came in for stray bouts of buying and selling to keep the wheel moving.

The prominent gainers were led by Wah Noble Chemicals and Pakistan Services, which rose by Rs2.40 and Rs4.25 respectively on stray support followed by Pak Commercial Leasing, Habib-ADM, Southern Electric and Pak Datacom, which were quoted higher by 13 paisa to Rs1.15.

Losses on the other hand were fractional barring Kohinoor Textiles, which fell by Rs1.04. Gharibwal Cement, Al-Noor Modaraba and Fidelity Leasing were marked down by five to 10 paisa.

Trading volume fell further to 0.177m shares from the weekend 0.193m shares, but gainers held a stray lead over the losers at eight to six, with 22 shares holding on to the last levels.

Southern Electric again led the list of actives, up 20 paisa at Rs3.80 on 0.30m shares, Mirza Sugar, static at Rs1.80 on 0.21m shares, Wah Noble Chemicals, higher by Rs2.40 at Rs54.40 on higher sales and dividend on 0.16m shares, National Asset Leasing, easy by two paisa at Rs0.41 on 0.16m shares, KESC, static at Rs3.80 on 0.12m shares and Pak Commercial Leasing, up 13 paisa at 70 paisa on 0.11m shares.

Fidelity Leasing followed them, easy by 10 paisa at Rs4.10 on 0.11m shares, Al-Zamin Leasing, steady by one paisa at Rs2.01 on 0.10m shares, Haydery Construction, unchanged at Rs1.03 on 0.10m shares and Sui Northern Gas, static at Rs27.91 on 0.05m shares.

DEFAULTER COMPANIES: Taxila Engineering came in for active support and was quoted higher by 45 paisa at Rs3.90 on 2,500 shares followed by Al-Asif Sugar, easy by six paisa at Rs4.14 on 500 shares and Indus Polyester, unchanged at 74 paisa also on 500 shares.