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RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: The talks between Pakistan and the IMF concluded without any understanding, while the Privatization Commission deferred PTCL's privatisation which intensified selling pressure in the share market which closed on a negative note on Wednesday.

The KSE-100 index fell by 15.21 points or 0.78 percent to 1941.65 from 1956.86 of Tuesday. The volume amounted to 187.078 million shares as against 218.333 million shares of Tuesday.

The two factors dampened the investors' hope. The meeting between Pakistan and IMF concluded without any understanding. Rather they forced the country's economic managers to scale down the budget deficit target to 3.3 percent from 4.4 percent of GDP. Also, the IMF did not allow curtailment of the revenue collection target to Rs 340 billion from Rs 360 billion fixed for the current fiscal year. Another reason which fuelled selling pressure was the report from the Privatisation Commission, deferring PTCL privatisation for the time being.

Salman Ahmad of Finex Securities said that the market throughout the session was glued to the minus column. Killing of 15 people near Islamabad in sectarian violence and deferment of privatisation of the PTCL forced the investors to offload their positions.

Iqbal Janoo of Arif Habib Securities foresaw further weakening in the price structure. The presence of weak holders indicated that the market might recede further. He added that delay in PTCL's privatisation and the law and order situation played havoc and added to the selling momentum in the stock market.

Mohammad Zubair Ellahi of KAB Securities said that the investment shares were slowly shedding weight whereas speculative were picking up. The market volumes too were declining and if the current trend persisted, the outstanding badla positions in investment stocks might exert pressure.

He added that the main initiators of the recent rally were swiftly losing ground and though wildly fluctuating speculatives were keeping the traders in the market the movements suggested passive focus. It was still advisable to buy on abnormal dips.

Nadeemud Din of AHR Securities said that the market dipped down owing to bad reports such as refusal of PSO to provide fuel to KESC, no positive outcome of the visiting IMF mission and delay of the PTCL privatisation for another six months.

The market received another setback when a report came in that several people have died near Rawalpindi in a bomb blast which might be sectarian violence. The overall sentiment remained bearish. However, continued buying interest in Adamjee Insurance, helped the index to stabilise to some extent. Some foreign buying in Fauji in the last two days has also been witnessed. Hence, the market did not drop significantly, except in the last hour on Wednesday.

PTCL on a trading of 44.894 million shares moved to Rs 31.30 from Rs 31.85, Hub Power moved down by 30 paisa to Rs 26.90 as nearly 27.015 million shares changed hands, ICI declined by 40 to Rs 16.95 on a turnover of 15.175 million shares, Ibrahim Fibers on a trading of 15.035 million shares closed at Rs 18.15, i.e. higher by 20 paisa and PSO on a volume of 10.476 million shares recorded a decline of Rs 3.15 to Rs 235.25.