KARACHI, July 30: The stock market finished the weekend session on a bullish note as investors covered positions on selected counters aided by reports of higher corporate earnings and strong whispering about enhanced payouts possibly by the next week.

But the reports of hike in the discount rate by the central bank in the monetary policy came a bit late and did not affect the early rising tempo.

“An increase of 50 basis points in the discount rate to 13 per cent from the previous 12.5 per cent could have a negative impact on the current rising market trend,” said Ahsan Mehanti, a leading stock analyst,” and added investors seldom welcome the hike for obvious reasons”.

How the market would react to this major policy change at a time when everybody was expecting a status quo early in the session, will be known after the market reopens on Monday, he said.

The market’s early buoyant mood was also well-reflected in the hefty rise of 80.36 points in the benchmark at 10,519.02, and analysts said the breach of the barrier of 10,500 could well prove a takeoff point for its onward march to the level of 11,000 points in due course.

In market parlance, snap run-up at the fag-end of the week generally paves the way for strong opening next week and that is perhaps why investors are inclined to take even the calculated financial risks, some leading brokers said.

“It was a judicious blend of both local and foreign buying,” said a leading stock analyst Hasnain Asghar Ali commenting on the strong weekend rally, and added: “Fresh anticipatory buying followed by market talk of higher dividends by some of the main board stocks played a decisive role in the higher closing”.

“I don’t presume the snap rally was caused by some positive leaks from the monetary policy due to be announced by the central bank late in the evening, which should reflect status quo, but essentially it was linked to an attractive bait of capital gains,” he added.

“The near-term share business outlook appears to be terribly positive, analyst Ashraf Zakaria predicts but warned investors not be carried away by whispering in the KSE trading hall or corridors about the higher payouts and play safe before action”.Some of the leading sectors, notably oil, cement and banking could be a good bet around the current levels but the fresh buying should be based on corporate facts rather than speculative rumours, he added.

Leading gainers were led by Rafhan Maize, Colgate Pakistan, Bata Pakistan, PSO, National Refinery and Indus Motors, which were marked up by Rs9.68 to 50.27 on strong support aided by higher earnings. Attock Petroleum, Clariant Pakistan, Nestle Pakistan, Service Industries and Lakson Tobacco followed them, up by Rs5.07 to 7.56.

Unilever Pakistan and Unilever Foods fell by Rs46 and 11.39, respectively, followed by HinoPak and Siemens Pakistan, which were marked down by Rs6.22 and 11.39.

Traded volume rose to 113.975m shares from the previous 70m shares as gainers held a strong lead over the losers at 220 to 121, with 13 shares holding on to the last levels.

The here to dormant Fatima Fertiliser came in for active support just at the heels of other fertilizer shares, which came out with higher dividend and topped the list of actives, up 75 paisa at Rs12.21 on 24m shares followed by Bank AlFalah, firm 31 paisa at 10.20 on 7m shares, PTCL, higher by 59 paisa at 20.10 on 6m shares, Ravi Textiles, easy by 11 paisa at 4.05 on 4m shares, Nishat Chunian, up one rupee at 19.10 also on 4m shares, D. G. Khan Cement, lower 33 paisa at 27.97 on 4m shares and PSO, sharply higher by 11.38 at 287.05 on 4m shares.

J.S. & Co followed them, steady by 16 paisa at 14.22 on 3m shares, Lotte Pakistan, easy by two paisa at 8.53 on 3m shares and Nishat Mills, up 74 paisa at 52.44 also on 3m shares.

FUTURE CONTRACTS: Bank AlFalah led the list of actives on this counter, up 36 paisa at Rs10.44 on a large turnover of 7.327m shares followed by OGDC, up Rs1.05 at 150.78 on 0.443m shares, and Azgard Nine, firm by 13 paisa at 12.53 on 0.441m shares.

D. G. Khan Cement followed them and came in for selling and was marked down by 26 paisa at 27.95 on 0.437m shares and Azgard Nine, August delivery, up 16 paisa at 12.68 on 0.405m shares.

DEFAULTER COS: The activity on this counter remained slow as investors remained busy in the ready section owing to general buying. Japan Power led the list of actives, easy five paisa at Rs1.95 on 0.142m shares followed by Shahpur Textiles, lower by seven paisa at 1.58 on 50,958 shares and Invest Bank, easy one paisa at 0.90 on 37,626 shares. Others were modestly traded in the absence of demand.
If you want to follow news on your mobile, click on http://dawn.com/mobile/ and download Pakistan's first mobile news application. Currently this application is for Nokia phones only