The share market did not show much change in the holiday shortened week as investors did not make fresh commitments on any of the counters despite the SECP directive about lifting of the ‘floor’ from under the KSE 100-share index on Dec 15.

A good part of the post-eid session witnessed only exchanging of greetings rather than any serious physical trading.

A sense of optimism prevailed in the rings about removal of ‘floor’, but there could be many a slips between the lip and the cup, said analyst Ahsan Mehanti.

The board of directors of the Karachi Stock Exchange late Friday informed its members that in pursuance of the SECP directive, the KSE would remove the ‘floor’ on the closing price of securities placed on August 28.

“That settles to rest any misgivings on the opening of the market on Monday,” commented an analyst.

However, the SECP directive was silent on some of the issues particularly about clearing of outstanding dues of Rs11 billion in the badla market.

The central bank annual report on the economy and the future outlook was not that encouraging for obvious reasons amid fears that the growth rate may not be sustained at the projected level and the monster of inflation may continue to take its toll.However, the SBP’s emphasis on to cut state borrowing to pragmatic level and expand credit lines to the production sector, notably farm sector has raised hope that sanity may return to financial market, analysts said.

Tension with India on Mumbai attack issue did worry investors owing to a loud whispering about Indian retaliation amid high diplomatic activity.

Some of the leading investors covered positions on some of the counters on the perception that their current lower levels ensure higher capital gains after normal trading resumed from Monday.

The general speculation is that prices of some of the leading shares could fall by another 20 to 30 per cent owing to panic selling after the ‘floor’ is removed, Ashraf Zakaria said.

Although there was no movement in the benchmark KSE 100-share index at 9,187.10 but its junior partner fell by about 27 points at 9,955.10 despite the fact that a sense of optimism prevailed in the market as some of the investors took fresh positions both in low-priced and some high profile shares.

But on the other hand the KSE All-Share index remained active amid alternate bouts of buying and selling at 6,641.67.

Both the market capital and the volume figure failed to sustain early improvement and fell by Rs2.43bn at Rs2,817.863bn from Rs2,820.456bn, and 1.700m shares as compared to previous 0.800m shares a week earlier.

FORWARD COUNTER: Five top shares including MCB Bank, Pakistan, Oilfields, PSO, OGDC and Engro Chemical came in for active selling as some of the investors tried to unload their long positions but there was no buyer as was reflected by no transaction in any of them.

All fell from the previous levels under the lead of OGDC, off Rs1.40 at Rs93.03 followed by Engro Chemical, Pakistan Oilfield, MCB Bank and PSO, which fell by 36 to 53 paisa, without any deal.— Muhammad Aslam