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RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: The stock market closed on a positive note on Friday as financial institutions and some of the players bought shares, though their interest was confined to selective issues.

The market throughout the session was in the plus territory but saw some selling pressure before the end . On fears of high badla rates, some of the weak holders offloaded their shares to book available profits. Once again buying in PTCL and PSO helped the market to close on a positive note.

Erratic movements were recorded in Hubco which triggered panic among the genuine investors. Several seasoned traders were reluctant to make long term commitments and this trimmed the share price which closed with a net fall of 60 paisa. They believed that the rift between the government and the company would take more time to resolve. However, a few traders were closely watching the scrip as Hubco's board meeting was scheduled to be held on Feb. 9 in Dubai to finalise six months financial accounts for the period ending December 31, 1999.

Despite a report that the Privatisation Commission has set the deadline of June 30, 2000 to sell-off the KESC, the price of the company share remained unchanged at Rs 12.25. However, the another company which has been targeted by the Privatisation Commission for sell-off shed weight. Traders termed the fall in the scrip's price merely a technical one. The value of the scrip has surged by over 65 percent, outperforming the price run at the stock exchange, during the last couple of weeks.

"Since, no confirmation was available of Thursday's rumour, that the SBP governor had said that Wapda was not able to pay Hubco's dues of general sales tax, which had created panic, the market opened in a bullish mode and the prices recovered sharply", Faisal Abbas of AHR Securities said.

He added that a rumour regarding the confirmation of President Clinton's visit to Pakistan helped the market to surge on the last working day of the settlement week.

Market men were quite optimistic about the future and they expected some favourable developments in the forthcoming sessions.

The KSE-100 index registered a rise of 10.75 points to 1799.95 from 1788.98 of Thursday. The volume amounted to 202.385 million shares as against 346.042 million shares of Thursday. The market capitalisation moved down to Rs 458.361 billion from Rs 456.427 billion of Thursday.

PTCL on a business of 110.171 million shares moved up by 60 paisa to Rs 30.70, Hubco on a trading of 43.209 million shares slipped by 60 paisa to Rs 27.35, ICI on a volume of 9.232 million shares closed at Rs 13.20, lower by 20 paisa, Sui Northern Gas moved down to Rs 21.20 from Rs 21.85 as nearly 7.796 million shares changed hands and KESC on a turnover of 4.476 million shares remained unchanged at Rs 12.25.