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Stocks absorb weekend selling

KARACHI — The weekend session on the Karachi share market yesterday ended on an easy note as leading shares finished with clipped gains as initial price flare-up attracted weekend selling at the higher levels but the underlying sentiment was on the upside.

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The KSE 100-share index posted a modest fall of 7.36 points at 13,763.16 as compared to 13,770.52 a day earlier as leading base shares mostly ended with fractional fall. It hit the session's high and low at 13,852.68 and 13,735.62 respectively.

"The dividend-aided rally is expected to manifest itself in a big way after the huge amounts (over Rs20.00 billion) tied to the Habib Bank share float last week again found their way into the share market," analyst Ahsan Mehanti said adding "the index then would regain its lost glory above the level of 14,000 points.

Another analyst Hasnain Asghar Ali predicts that the revival of foreign buying on selected counter after a brief interruption owing to law and order situation reflects the sailing could be more smooth by the next week as by that time some of the leading companies will announce their interim or full year results and dividend.

The bulk of the support, however, again remained confined to some of the second-liners, notably those, which have the potential of capital gains as well as dividend, Fauji Cement, Pakistan Cement, and DG Khan Cement were leading among them.

About half a dozen cement shares have assumed the role of market trend setters since the Indian government allowed imports of cement from short-listed Pakistani producers and analysts said some of them could come out with higher financial results for the year ended June 30, 2007.

Trading volume fell to 229 million shares from the previous 273 million shares as losers held a modest lead over the gainers at 155 to 146, with 29 shares holding on to the last levels.

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