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RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: All the losses of last week were recovered at the stock market on Monday and blue chips and investment stocks recorded handsome gains when the bulls once again came to the fore helping the index to score nearly 90 points.

The market according to an analyst, was down last week because of technical factors and high badla rates. As the rates were lowered on Friday, the buyers got a chance to re-enter the rings with a bang. The market was also up because the government was expected to announce privatisation policy. The government aims to offload shares of state-run companies, using the proceeds to retire short term expensive foreign debts.

Mohammad Zubair Ellahi of KAB Securities said that the strong surge in high capital stocks provided a good opportunity to offload stuck up investments. The activity in privatisation programme and regular information inflow might further jack up the prices, but entry around current levels needed caution. The broader term outlook was still positive but profit realisation on rises was to be reckoned with.

The KSE-100 index registered a rise of 89.92 points or 5.27 percent to 1795.31 from 1705.39 of Friday. The volume amounted to 223.281 million shares as against 266.791 million shares of Friday. The market capitalisation moved up to Rs 460.039 billion from Rs 439.130 billion of Friday.

"Counter-acting to the bears' efforts on last Friday, the bulls have demonstrated their brawn in the rings and the market successfully recovered Ñ what it had lost on that session, when a couple of financial institutions had averted further destruction and supported the index by getting into some of the blue chip scrips like PSO, Shell, PTC, Hubco,'' an analyst from Westminster Eastern Financial Services Ltd. said.

The market remained positive tone throughout on Monday as bulls started the week in a buoyant mood. The index oriented scrips remained eye-catching for the financial institutions, who took fresh positions in these scrips. The badla rates were good enough to encourage bulls to take fresh positions.

The KSE index, the same analyst said, closed on a strong note and the broader market also gained a momentum. The market was expected to move in a positive direction, as some of the genuine investors had appeared on the scene, after low badla rates.

Faisal Abbas of AHR Securities said that a handsome recovery in the KSE-100 index was witnessed, while the overall market sentiment was bullish from the beginning and the buying interest in selected blue chips stocks along with almost all the active issues helped the market to register a major gain. Furthermore, DFIs again jumped into the market with funds and started buying issues such as PSO, PTC and Engro Chemical.

PTCL on a trading of 90.891 million shares gained Rs 1.50 to Rs 29.10, Hubco on a business of 27.823 million shares moved up by 85 paisa to Rs 27.60, PSO on a turnover of 19.724 million shares closed at Rs 222.50, higher by Rs 18.00, ICI on a volume of 17.329 million shares remained unchanged at Rs 12.75 and Sui Northern Gas moved up to Rs 19.10 from Rs 20.00 as nearly 7.745 million shares changed hands.