KARACHI, Dec 26: The share market finished the weekend session on a mixed note as investors made fresh commitments on the mutual fund and modaraba counters on Friday at the attractively lower levels despite fears of war with India.

The benchmark KSE 100-share index suffered fresh fall of 172.66 points or 2.59 per cent at 6,487.52 amid large volume of 106m shares.

For the first time during the protracted bearish spell for last over four months, the volume figure soared to 106m shares and the advancing shares managed a slight edge over the losers at 102 to 97, reflecting that squaring up of the unsettled positions that could put the market on the road to recovery in the coming weeks, said a leading analyst.

The reports of settlement of the outstanding CFS positions of Rs7 billion after an out-of-court mutually agreed formula, brokered by top officials, did have modest immediate positive impact on stock trading.

Under the agreed settlement formula, a half of the stuck up shares will be purchased by the financers at a discount of 12.5 per cent below the rates prevailed on Dec 24 and the second half by the government and the financial institutions.

However, it was a positive development and could put the market back on the rails after sanity returns to the Indo-Pak relations and fears of conflict fade, brokers said.

Analysts said restoring the badly shaken confidence of the investors may take some more weeks.

“The financial institutions and leading brokerage houses could initiate a technical rally at the current lower rates and may be followed by the others as it is pretty difficult to ignore an attractive bait of capital gains,” they said.

The big question is that who will bell the cat, they said, adding that in the prevailing situation no one would like to put money in the risky share business.

The KSE 30-share, All Share and KMI 30-share indexes were quoted further lower by 279.63, 105.37 and 186.74 for at 6,284.72, 4,815.13 and 7,502.69 respectively.

Bulk of the short-covering was confined to the undervalued shares, notably in the mutual funds, leasing companies, modarabas and cement shares, while bluechips on the oil and banking counters remained under pressure and led the market fall.

Leading gainers were led by BankIslami, Hira Textiles, Invest Bank, Kot Addu Power, Eye TV, Maple Leaf Cement, Sui Gas, Hub Power, Service Industries, Ismail Industries and Unilever Pakistan, which recovered by Re1 to Rs34.25.

Losers were again led by the energy shares under the lead of National Refinery, Attock Petroleum, PSO, Pakistan Oilfields, Pakistan Petroleum, MCB Bank, Adamjee Insurance, EFU Insurance, Engro Chemical, BOC Pakistan, Abbott Lab, BOC Pakistan and Pakistan Engineering, which were quoted further lower by Rs5.50 to Rs11.86.

Trading volume rose to 106m shares from the previous 59.065m shares as gainers forced a modest lead over the losers for the first time after several months at 102 to 97, with three shares holding onto the last levels, out of 202 actives.

Dewan Cement led the list of actives, lower by 60 paisa at Rs3.34 on 13.069m shares followed by Hub-Power, up Re1 at Rs14.38 on 9.803m shares, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, lower by 74 paisa at Rs13.81 on 8.048m shares, NIB Bank, higher by 95 paisa at Rs4.26 on 7.644m shares, PICIC Fund, steady four paisa at Rs2.17 on 6.594m shares, Zeal Pak Cement, firm by two paisa at Rs0.54 on 6.195m shares and JS Value Fund, higher by 91 paisa at Rs4.06 on 6.181m shares.

TRG Pakistan followed them, up by 75 paisa at Rs2.16 on 5.067m shares, Maple Leaf Cement, up Re1 at Rs4.09 on 4.063m shares and Pak PTA, higher by 58 paisa at Rs1.89 on 3.590m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: OGDC came in for fresh selling was quoted lower by Rs3.06 at Rs58.32 on 1,000 share followed by Allied Bank, off by Rs2 at Rs37.15, Bank of Punjab, lower by Rs1.03 at Rs16.49 and Fauji Fertiliser easy by 61 paisa at Rs64.39,all without any deal.

DEFAULTER COMPANIES: Zeal Pak Cement came in for fresh support and led the list of actives, fractional higher by two paisa at Rs0.54 on 6.196m shares followed by Japan Power, higher by 32 paisa at Rs1.83 on 0.409m shares and Unity Modaraba, lower four paisa at Rs0.26 on 84,000 shares and Nazir Cotton, easy by two paisa at Rs0.28 on 59,500 shares.

Ashfaq Textile rose by Re1, while Hafiz Textile fell by the same amount, while Quice Foods and Invest Bank rose by 41 and 30 paisa at Rs1.56 and Rs1.80 respectively on modest volumes.