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KARACHI, Jan 10: The share market on Monday passed through an overdue technical correction late in the session after a robust reopening aided by positive news from the political front but the early strong run-up could not be sustained on foreign selling.
An idea of easing of political tension after the prime minister promised to the PML-N high ups to hold talks on their demands linked to economic reforms and others, may well be had from the fact the benchmark breached through the barrier of 12,500 at 12,535.77.But late foreign and institutional profit-selling at the higher levels pushed it down to finish with a net fall of 82.34 points at 12,306.70.
“The OGDC, which jumped up by 3.2 per cent last week on strong support, was the villain of the game”, said a leading analyst Samar Iqbal and added: It lost more than 1.5 per cent or 36 points alone and dragged the entire market, notably oil sector along with it owing to its massive weightage in the benchmark.”
Although active speculative support in Engro Corporation aided by reports of successful trial production run allowed it to close higher from the low of 12,266.07, but the overall decline could not be wiped out, he said.
“The crossing of the barrier of 12,500 reflects how much importance investors, notably foreign attach to the sanity on the political front”, commenting on the meteoric rise of the index said an analyst Hasnain Asghar Ali.
But he said the fall is technical and there is no reason to believe the current run-up is overdone and hoped the rally would continue in the coming sessions also.
Apart from institutional selling, the other factor, which triggered selling, was Moody's statement of a possible downgrading of Pakistan's sovereign rating if the IMF demand on energy subsidy was not met, another analyst Ahsan Mehanti said.
Leading gainers were led by Rafhan Maize, and Clariant Pakistan, up by Rs14.34 and 8.56 followed by Sapphire Fibre, Pakistan Services, Shezan International, and Engro Corporation, which posted gains ranging from Rs5 to 6.15.
Prominent losers, included Nestle Pakistan and Unilever Pakistan, off by Rs23.60 and Rs45.08. They were followed by Exide Pakistan, Indus Dyeing, Wyeth Pakistan, Unilever Foods, Colgate Pakistan, PECO and Siemens Pakistan, which fell by Rs4.81 to Rs19.95.
Traded volume fell to 135.400m shares from the previous 152m shares as losers held a fair lead over the gainers at 217 to 166, with 24 shares holding on to the last levels.
The active list was topped by SilkBank, steady 12 paisa at Rs2.93 on 18m shares followed by Lotte Pakistan, easy seven paisa at Rs14.66 on 15m shares, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, up 21 paisa at Rs38.65 on 13m shares, Engro Corporation, higher by Rs6.45 at Rs208 on 7m shares, KESC, easy by nine paisa at Rs3.07 on 6m shares, National Bank, lower by 55 paisa at Rs77.10 on 4m shares, and NIB Bank, lower by eight paisa at Rs3.09 on 4m shares.
They were followed by D.G. Khan Cement, lower 34 paisa at Rs30.14 on 4m shares, Attock Refinery, easy by five paisa at Rs130.58 also on 4m shares, and Bank of Punjab, lower by 28 paisa at Rs9.65 on 3m shares. FUTURE CONTRACTS:
Engro Corporation led the list of actives on this counter, sharply higher by Rs6.48 at Rs209.26 on 1.595m shares followed by Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, steady by 23 paisa at Rs38.87 also on large volume of 1.174m shares and Pakistan Oilfields, higher by Rs1.63 at Rs322.82 on 0.853m shares.
Others, which followed them, were led by D. G. Khan Cement, lower by 23 paisa at Rs30.35 on 0.566m shares and National Bank, easy by 46 paisa at Rs77.62 on 0.435m shares. DEFAULTER COS:
The activity on this counter was relatively slow in the absence of active investors and as a result, price changes were fractional.
Japan Power came in for renewed selling and fell fractionally by one paisa at Rs1.72 on 90,433 shares followed by Crescent Jute, up 14 paisa at Rs1.14 on 38,596 shares, and Haydery Construction, unchanged at Rs0.70 on 30,061 shares. Others were modestly traded.
