KARACHI, Oct 8: The share market on Wednesday lacked normal support as investors were not inclined to take new positions owing to the falling value of the rupee, which hit a new low around Rs80 to a dollar.

The underlying sentiment in part was also influenced bearishly as investors awaited the “leaks” from the joint session of the parliament, analysts said, adding “the in-camera session is always considered a major event regarding the nation’s security concerns”.

The KSE 100-share index shed the overnight gain and was quoted lower by 2.75 points at 9,178.73, but on the other hand the KSE 30-share index posted a larger fall of 18.94 points at 10,043.41, while the KMI-30 was held unchanged at 11,224.18 points.

Dividend announcements were on the higher side under the lead of Ghani Glass, 20 per cent cash and five per cent bonus shares and 50 per cent cash by Wah Nobel Chemical, but failed to evoke fresh buying even in their own shares owing to prevailing sluggishness, analysts said.

There was no trading in the open-end mutual funds after the suspension of trading in them by the SECP and selling and buying prices of the largest among them, NIT, remained frozen at Rs34.60 and Rs33.35 for the last over a week.

Floor brokers said most of the selling offers again originated from the foreign investors indicating worsening of macroeconomic situation.

The weak rupee was also discouraging local investors to take fresh positions on any of the counters, they added.

Analyst Tabish H. Rajabali feels that the public trust in the rupee is weakening despite the fact that the central bank is injecting dollars in the open market to check further increase in the value of the US currency.

“Any further increase in the value of the US dollar could heighten the financial crisis to unmanageable proportions,” some analysts fear.

Price changes were again mostly fractional barring UTP Large Fund, Sitara Energy, and National Foods, which rose by Re1 to Rs3.47, but others including Fidelity Leasing, Sakrand Sugar, Muhammad Farooq Textiles and Olympia Spinning showed fractional rise of 10 to 60 paisa.

Losers were led by Pakistan Services, which shed its overnight gain of Rs23.15 followed by Pak Elektron, off by Rs1.94. Others fell by 41 to 70 paisa under the lead of Siddiqsons, Pak Datacom and English Leasing.

Trading volume again fell to 1.256m shares from the previous 2.040m shares as losers held a fractional lead over the gainers at 13 to 10, with 47 shares holding on to the last levels.

Southern Electric led the list of actives, unchanged at Rs3.90 on 0.553m shares, Dominion Stocks, static at Rs5.70 on 0.100m shares, UTP Large Capital Fund, up Re1 at Rs6.50 on 0.98m shares and Siddiqsons Tin, easy by 41 paisa at Rs12.93 on 0.53m shares.

Quice Foods, unchanged at Rs2 on 0.50m shares, Sitara Energy, higher by Re1 at Rs21 on 0.39m shares and Pak Commercial Leasing, easy by five paisa at 56 paisa on 0.30m shares.

Pak Strat Fund followed them, unchanged at Rs5.28 on 0.25m shares, Gharibwal Cement, lower 54 paisa at Rs17.50 on 0.24m shares and Sakrand Sugar, up 12 paisa at Rs2.82 on 0.22m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: Pakistan Petroleum was the only company, which came in for trading on the cleared list and was held unchanged at Rs190.30 on 3,000 shares. Others were not quoted.