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Bulls take hold on KSE

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Bulls on Thursday broke the supremacy of bears with renewed buying from the financial institutions and leading brokerage houses, finding the levels lucrative to book capital gains.

The KSE-100 index registered a rise of 36.98 points or 1.97 percent to 1911.47 from 1874.49 of Wednesday. The volume amounted to 268.04 million shares as against 316.244 million shares of Wednesday. The market capitalization moved down to Rs 487.764 billion from Rs 480.048 billion of Wednesday.

The market opened on a negative note and selling pressure was evident on every counter. The index suffered a net loss of 38 points during the first session, traders said adding as the level has breached the 1850 mark, the short covering might surface soon. The market was down only on technical factors as there was no negative development to jitter the investors.

Before the end of the first session, the index was on the recovery drive where new orders were placed by financial institutions and brokerage houses. PTCL, PSO and ICI were the leaders and forced the market to close on a positive note.

PTCL recorded a sharp rise during the last 45 minutes of the session mainly because of the report that the company has signed an agreement with Nortel Networks, based in Canada to run a mobile phone service later this year. Analysts believe that the commencement of the mobile service would help improve its revenue for the year ending 2001.

PSO was up amid speculation that the government might increase petroleum prices soon following a hike international prices. The oil prices on Wednesday touched the high mark of $31 per barrel. The increase in petroleum prices would surely have an inflationary impact but would boost the earnings of oil marketing companies.

Faisal Abbas of AHR Securities said that after starting on a bullish note, the KSE-100 index sharply started to fall in the early hours of the trading and panic selling pressure resulted in a loss of about 40 points in the KSE-100 index in the first and the initial part of the second session.

He added that the market suddenly started to recover at the end of second session, as fresh buying in PSO emerged which helped the overall trading sentiment and the index recovery around 37 points.

The buying from local institutions emerged on account of prevailing lower levels of most of blue chips, which created panic among the bears who came up to square their short positions. Bulls rally set in and most of the issues registered remarkable recovery. The market punters expect a bullish market in the forthcoming sessions.

PTCL on a trading of 107.525 million shares showed a rise of 75 paisa to Rs 31.25, Hub Power moved up to Rs 26.65 from Rs 26.60 as nearly 50.436 million shares changed hands, ICI on a volume of 38.515 million shares closed at Rs 14.55, higher by 70 paisa, PSO on a turnover of 30.285 million shares closed at Rs 255, higher by Rs 15.00 and Sui Northern Gas on a business of 9.397 million shares moved down by 75 paisa to Rs 21.80.