Little buying not conducive to affect bearish sentiment (23122008)

LEADER REPORT
KARACHI: Bourse at KSE demonstrated a further slide as index on the fourth day after the removal of floor declined by 320 points (4 percent) to close at 7,785 points. Over 50 million shares were traded throughout the day, PCCL remained the volume leader followed by TRG with 11 and 9 million shares respectively. 160 scrips were traded over all of which 126 declined while 45 scrips advanced, mainly comprising 3rd tier scrips.
Mutual funds to continue freeze on redemption
Mutual funds maintain the freeze status on redemption even after four days of removal of floor. At the time when the redemption was abandoned it was stated that it will be restored on the fourth day after the removal of floor on the index. The cause for continuing the restriction is due to no activity in the blue chip scrips while the funds are not able to sell their holding to pay back the investors.
Current account deficit expand by 44 percent
A rise of 44 percent was witnessed in the current account deficit in the first five months of the FY09 to USD 6.8 BN compared to USD 4.745 BN last year, depicting an increase of USD 2.71 BN.
Oil prices drifted to 4 years low in international market
Yesterday oil prices drop down to their 4 years low levels owing to reduced demand in wage of global economic turmoil. While declining oil prices have raised economic concerns for major OPEC member countries, they have cut their oil production by 2.2 million barrels a day, however wide recession concerns continue to pressurize oil prices which is evident from recent fall in prices after the reduction in oil production
Market now looking for its bottom levels
As the market witnessed a chunk of buying bids on the trade screen in the closing session, we are of the view that with the market losing points on the table, investors are identifying the lucrative values of many stocks and tapping opportunities at low levels of the prices. It seems that market is now finding its bottom levels below 8,000 levels after which we might see a decent bounce in the market. Furthermore, as preparation of support fund by finance ministry has again being witnessed, if it materializes it will be a good support for the market at lower levels and will act as a catalyst in stabilizing the market.