KARACHI, July 17: The KSE 100-share index at one stage on Thursday appeared to be heading to breach through its base barrier of 10,000 points on renewed selling triggered by reports that Nato forces had hit targets inside Pakistan, but late buying in some leading oil shares averted an imminent threat.

At one stage it was down by 446 points at 10,045.43, leading to a strong protest by the brokers and investors against the KSE high-ups urging them to take some corrective steps to check the market’s unprecedented fall followed by a brief interruption in trading.

The close was, however, well above the session’s low at 10,212.92, off 278.96 points as some of the leading institutional traders picked up index-heavy weights, notably OGDC, PSO, PTCL and some others at the lower levels to forestall further fall.

The KSE board of directors was in session to discuss a number of proposals, including freezing of the lower lock at zero per cent to pull the market out of the current crisis and the details of the meetings were expected to be officially released later in the evening.

“No one can deny the fact that all the factors both local and external, including political, US threats, a terribly weak rupee are bearish,” said a leading analyst Ashraf Zakaria. ”But the intriguing factor is that leading institutional investors are sitting idle apparently awaiting nod from Islamabad to make a big buck at the current lows,” he added.

He said the market was the victim of buying support and needed confidence building steps, notably official nod to institutional traders to come to the aid of a falling market as foreigners would not put their money in shares in the prevailing situation.

But another leading analyst Hasnain Asghar Ali proposed that the freezing of both the upper and the lower locks at zero per cent with a view to avoid payments of losses on selected counters could put the brake on fresh price erosions.

The phenomenon of zero per cent locks briefly put in operation allowed the index to show a massive recovery of 37 per cent from the session’s low of 10,045.43 to 10,212.92, he added.

Among the top gainers, Unilever Pakistan and HinoPak Motors were leading, up by Rs70 and 10.15, followed by Sanghar Sugar, Tri-Star Polyester, Orix Leasing, PNSC, Fauji Fertiliser, and PSO, up by Re1 to Rs2.90.

JS & Co, National Foods were prominent losers, off by Rs20.74 and Rs17.59, respectively. Arif Habib Ltd, Habib Bank, MCB Bank, Adamjee Insurance, National Refinery, Attock Petroleum, Mari Gas, Pakistan Oilfields, Indus Motors, Millat Tractors, Engro Chemical, Dawood Hercules, Ferozsons Lab, Clariant Pakistan and Packages followed them, off by Rs9.21 to Rs17.44.

Trading volume showed a modest increase at 90m shares from the previous 79m shares but losers maintained a strong lead over the gainers at 201 to 42, with 23 shares holding on to the last levels.

NIB Bank again led the list of actives, easy by five paisa at Rs8.65 on 11m shares followed by Hub Power, lower by 60 paisa at Rs24 on 10m shares, OGDC, easy by Rs1.38 at Rs105.50 on 4m shares and MCB Bank, sharply lower by Rs12.91 at Rs245.34 also on 4m shares.

TRG Pakistan, up 18 paisa at Rs4.68 also on 4m shares, Pakistan Cement, nominally higher by one paisa at Rs6.20 on 4m shares and Pakistan Petroleum, off Rs7.80 at Rs195.50 on 3m shares.

Other actives were led by Zeal Pak Cement, lower by 19 paisa at Rs1.52 on 4m shares, Fauji Cement, lower by 30 paisa at Rs8 also on 4m shares and Dewan Salman, easy by 30 paisa at Rs3.15 on 3m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: Engro Polymer was again actively traded and fell by 13 paisa at Rs23 on 1.259m shares, followed by NIB Bank, up by 14 paisa at Rs8.85 on 1.214m shares, OGDC, off Rs1.38 at Rs105.50 on 0.880m shares.

PSO followed them, sharply higher by Rs5.05 at Rs382.70 on 0.553m shares and Pakistan Petroleum, off by Rs7.30 at Rs196 on 0.475m shares.

DEFAULTER COMPANIES: Norrie Textiles led the list of actives, easy by nine paisa at Rs1.66 on 1.374m shares followed by Unity Modaraba, lower by 13 paisa at Rs0.77 on 0.318m shares and Crescent Standard Modaraba, up 20 paisa at Rs1.95 on 0.240m shares. Others were modestly traded.

DIVIDEND: Fauji Fertiliser, first interim at the rate of six per cent, Grays Leasing, right shares 7.5 per cent.