KARACHI, Feb 9: Stocks on Monday failed to sustain the early run-up boosted by strong short-covering in some blue chips and MCB Bank ahead of its board meeting on Tuesday and market talk of higher per share earnings.

Having largest weightage in the KSE 100-share index, speculative and investment buying pushed it to session’s high of 5,676.58 points, up by about 80 points but late profit-selling in other blue chips pushed it finish lower by 23.96 points at 5,573.48.

But despite the weakness of the National Bank, other leading bank shares and other blue chips in the oil sector limited the fall in the index.

All other indexes including KSE 30-share and All Share Index also fell modestly by 3.95 and 20.62 at 5,630.83 and 4,140.43, respectively, but the KMI-30 share index suffered a large fall of 132.64 points at 7,268.23 points.

Final dividend announced by the leading shares in food sector, notably Unilever Pakistan, Unilever Foods and Nestle Pakistan, at 114, 140 and 250 per cent, respectively, were well-received by the investors, some technical factors triggered profit selling by some leading bargain hunters.

“I don’t think the current run-up is overdone,” said analyst Ahsan Mehanti.” There are reasons to believe that the current index level well above the support level of 5,550 points indicates that the market’s winning streak could be further intensified in the coming weeks.”

But he said the confusion about the new accounting standards followed by divided opinions about their implementation and some bad news from the political and law and order fronts also triggered selling, but each fall fuelled fresh covering purchases at the dips.

“The tensions on the local political front owing to war of wits between the major contenders of power though are being ignored by the investors for the time being on the strength of some higher interim dividend news there could be some shocks if the showdown goes beyond their control,” another leading analyst Faisal A. Rajabali fears.Although the market has still to go a long way to regain its past glory the current confidence building steps being taken could keep it in a good mood in the coming weeks also, he said.

Strong presence of fund and institutional traders though on selected counters continues to inspire fresh short-covering by some other quarters as was reflected by large volumes, dealers said.

Top gainers were led by Habib Bank, MCB Bank, EFU General, Al-Abbas Sugar, Sitara Chemical, National Foods, PECO and Shell Pakistan, which rose by Rs3.23 to 9.74.

Prominent losers included Wyeth Pakistan and Unilever Pakistan, off by Rs39.00 and 111.45 followed by J.S. Gold, EFU Life, Dawood Hercules, Engro Chemical, Ferozsons Lab, Tri-Pack Films and EFU Life Insurance, which suffered fall ranging from Rs5.33 to 7.85.

Trading volume was maintained on the higher side at 174m shares but losers forced a strong lead over the gainers at 166 to 106, with five shares holding on to the last levels.

OGDC again topped the list of actives, steady by five paisa after early hitting the session’s high at Rs51.99, on 18.373m shares followed by National Bank, off Rs2.41 at Rs53.27 on 12m shares, NIB Bank, easy by 23 paisa at Rs5.17 on 10m shares, TRG Pakistan, lower by 24 paisa at 1.25 also on 10m shares, PTCL, off 33 paisa at 14.71 on 9m shares, and MCB Bank, higher by Rs4.49 at 119.33 on 8m shares and J.S. & Co, higher by Rs1.69 at 35.62 on 6m shares.

Other actives were led by Pakistan Oilfields, up 53 paisa at 111.66 on 6m shares, Arif Habib Securities, up by Rs1.09 at 23.56 and United Bank, 77 paisa at 39.22 also on 6m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: Speculative issues on the forward counter showed mixed trend amid alternate bouts of buying and selling. While Habib Bank, Fauji Fertiliser, MCB Bank and Pakistan Refinery managed to finish higher, the largest gain of Rs17.99 being in Fauji Fertiliser, others fell under the lead of Engro Chemical and PSO.

DEFAULTER COS: Zeal Pak Cement again led the list of actives, steady by one paisa at Rs0.39 on 0.892m shares followed by Japan Power, lower 13 paisa at Rs0.16 on 3m shares and Unity Modaraba, up three paisa at Rs0.21 on 82,500 shares.

Other actives were led by Nazir Cotton, off 39 paisa at Rs0.30 on 55,000 shares, and National Asset Leasing, firm one rupee at Rs0.31 on 25,000 shares.

Feb 9,2009

Market at a glance