THE share market maintained its run-up throughout the last week as investors were not inclined to take even a technical breather in a highly overbought market and no one was in a mood to miss the bandwagon at this stage.

An idea of unprecedented prices flare-up may well be had from the fact that most of the leading shares were subjected to upper locks and after clearance they rose higher in the absence of floating stocks.

It was a very unusual trading week as the index did not look back after the opening increase and finished with most of the earlier gains fully sustained.

The KSE 100-share index steadily progressed towards its new target of 16,000 points and analysts believed it was not an elusive goal as a new group of moneyed people had opted for the share business together with foreign and institutional traders. The index achieved a major breakthrough beyond the barrier of 15,500 points at 15,676 boosted by heavy buying in the leading oil, cement, fertiliser and bank shares, they said adding it had apparently crossed the last barrier to hit the next target of 16,000 points.

Although it ended below the week’s high of 15,693, it scored a fresh rise of well over 238.5 points at 15,676.34 as compared to 15,430.89 a week earlier, adding Rs68 billion to the market capital at Rs4,791 billion. The free float 30-shares index also rose by 175.04 points at 18,991.92.

Analysts said the market performance during the week showed that pent up demand from almost all quarters may not dry up in the near future and could lead to fresh price flare-up on some counters where the potential of capital gains was fairly attractive.

The sustained price flare-up in the backdrop of market talk of withdrawal of capital gain tax exemption in the budget and some new taxes on the corporate sector did not deter investors, and they continued to build-up long positions at the current levels.

Analysts said technical correction was overdue, but ruled out massive fall as in the changed political scenario investors seemed to be more optimistic than before.

They said the period of political uncertainty was over as the governments were in place both at the centre and the provinces allowing investors to plan long-term investment and the leading among them were said to be busy in new portfolio building.

There could be technical corrections here and there, but the general perception was that the market had decided to go in unison with the positive basic fundamentals.

The fact that the market had ignored negative developments on the local political front and bad economy, spoke a lot about the future of share business, and those who could read between the lines were busy in moping operations on selected counters, analyst Ahsan Mehanti believed.

The reports that world crude prices had crossed the $117 barrier triggered buy stops in leading oil shares, mainly Pakistan Oilfields, OGDC and Pakistan Petroleum on the perception of an identical increase in their profitability.

An upper lock in the Pakistan oilfields after its share value soared by a limit gain in session and some others reflected that the new set by the investors were not that ambitious. Its highly inflated rate evoked sympathetic price flare-ups in other leading oil shares. An identical performance by the MCB, which also jumped up from the previous close, was another supporting factor behind the current run-up.

“It was a judicious blend of both local and foreign buying and for good reasons too,” said analyst Faisal A. Rajababli. “But the important feature is that leading shares on other counters also traded higher,” he added.

He predicted the index could hit its next chart point of 16,000 levels on the strength of payouts for the year ended March 31, by some leading companies, which were expected to be in line with the general perception.

Forward counters: Trading on the cleared list was also maintained on the higher side on active follow-up support coming from all quarters. As a result all leading shares, which came in for trading were generally higher amid brisk activity.

Leading gainers among them were Nishat Mills, Arif Habib Securities, OGDC, Pakistan Oilfields, Pakistan Petroleum on reports of a record rise in world oil prices, Engro Chemical and second liners, notably Azgard Nine, Sitara Peroxide and some others also recorded gain.

—Muhammad Aslam.