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Index maintains recovery drive on active follow-up support

KARACHI - The post-Musharraf buying euphoria was maintainted on the Karachi bourse on Tuesday. Investors continued to build-up long positions in oil and banking sectors on the perception of political stability in future and the relative strength of the rupee against the US dollar.

"The strong recovery in the value of the rupee may prove short-lived," said a leading analyst. "The massive fiscal deficit could again erode its value," he added.

Instances of foreign buying on the selected oil and banking counters were not wanting as was reflects an increase in the SCRA balances but some analysts said the current rescue operation is essentially based on local equity market support fund managed by the NIT and some leading punters.

After breaching through the barrier of 11,000 points at 11,054.65, the KSE 100-share index later reacted to close with a clipped gain of 199.44 points or 1.86 per cent at 10,919.06.

The leading base shares, notably OGDCL, MCB Bank, National Bank, Pakistan Petroleum and Pakistan Oilfields again came in for strong support and rose sharply higher.

A section of leading analysts still doubt about the smooth working of the coalition government as leading among them have different views on another crucial issue after the exit of president Musharraf, the restoration of the sacked judges as pledged by the both. But some others hope their future actions will be based on the wisdom as any other adventure will hurt the already weak economy beyond corrective steps.

Shell Pakistan again dominated the trading, up by another Rs22.11 for the third straight session followed by JS & Co, higher by Rs18.70. Paistan Engineering and Lakson Tobacco were off by Rs19.80 and 18.43 respectively.

Trading volume rose further to 211 million shares from the previous159 million shares as gainers held a lead over the losers at 165 to 138, with 12 shares holding on to the last levels.

OGDCL topped the list of actives, higher by Rs4.77 at Rs123.45 on 22 million shares followed by National Bank, firm by Rs1.97 at Rs126.50 on 18 million shares, Arif Habib Securities, higher by Rs4.33 at Rs126.70 on 11 million shares, Bank Al Falah, lower by 65 paisa at Rs40.65 on 6 million shares, Pakistan Petroleum, up Rs5.37 at Rs237.00 on 6 million shares Pakistan Oilfields, higher by Rs14.12 at Rs296.69 on 5 million shares and Lucky Cement, firm by Rs2.04 at Rs75.80 also on 5 million shares.