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RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: The stock market reached another milestone on Monday as the KSE-100 index touched the two-year high of 1724 with volume soaring to 462 million shares and surpassing last Wednesday's record of 314 million shares.

Once again huge trading volume featured the trading pattern on Monday and transactions could not be executed at the Karachi Automated Trading System. Last Wednesday when the business touched 314 million shares, a computer glitch halted trading on the following day. It proved the computer system installed at the stock exchange needed upgradation to avoid such hazards. If the stock market in the future experienced such glitches, the confidence of the foreign investors which was reviving steadily might suffer a jolt.

A leading trader said that the market was up on the report that the 100 days of military rule had shown results and the key indicators of the economy were showing resilience against the prolonged depression.

The KSE-100 index registered an increase of 98.37 points or 6.05 percent to 1724.47 from 1626.10 of Friday. The volume moved up to 462.560 million shares from 274.835 million shares of Friday. About 258 scrips were called on the ready board, of which 180 moved up while 39 moved down while 43 remained unchanged.

The momentum at the market was bullish throughout the session and investors thronged all the choice counters. Rumours engulfed the stock market that the government and Hubco had reached an agreement to resolve the over two years old dispute over power tariff. The rumour was enough to jack up the prices of Hub Power company which recorded an increase of Rs 1.85.

The gains were further consolidated when the announcement of Pakistan State Oil was made, which attracted fresh investment from the financial institutions and general public. The profit of the company soared by 45 percent to Rs 2.670 billion and it gave 90 percent cash dividend and 20 percent bonus for the year ended June 30, 1998.

The appreciation in PTCL helped the index to almost score a century in the session. PTCL gathered momentum as the company has been tipped for speedy privatisation after the gas sector. According to reports the officials of the Privatisation Commission have finalised some of the modalities to privatise the company with its financial advisor , Goldman Sachs. The company is expected to launch its mobile service and paycard phone facility by next month which would help to boost its sales for the year 2000-2001.

The exact closing figures were not available due to computer glitch but one thing was certain that the index recorded an appreciable gain of 98 points and there was still room for improvement. However, seasoned traders said that the market in four sessions had scored over 200 points and might see some technical downward correction in the coming session.

PTCL on a trading of 187.604 million shares denoted an improvement of Rs 4.05 to Rs 29.90, Hub Power on a business of 53.207 million shares moved up to Rs 25.85 to Rs 24.00, ICI on a volume of 27.627 million shares recorded a rise of Rs 3.60 to Rs 15.85 and PSO recorded an appreciation of Rs 3.00 to Rs 227.00 on total deals of 9.973 million shares.