Bearish trend on LSE

The share market showed a highly volatile movement on Monday and failed to take a one-sided direction amid alternative buying and selling bouts, to finally finish with minor losses. The LSE-25 Index, with a fractional decline of 1.79 points, finished at 4,812.11 as compared to previous closing at 4,813.90 points.
The turnover totalled 23.397 million shares as against 38.249 million, registering a fall of 14.851 million shares. The market showed gains in initial trading, but later turned volatile amid profit-taking, which peaked in last minutes.
Analysts said the trend was mixed and the market mostly moved in positive zone, but few minutes before the close it landed in minus column, receiving minor losses. Brokers said that the market sentiment was strong and chances for continuation of the trend were more than the reversal.
The positive sentiment is expected to continue, as people believe that with end of political unrest in the country, the worst is over and good time for the market has started, an analyst said. The market was standing at upper levels, and the bargain-hunters were taking advantage of the situation through profit-taking, said Mirza Muhammad Irfan of Capital Vision Securities Limited.
According to him, the market opening was positive with the index gaining over 100 points, but subsequently, it kept moving up and down which disturbed investors. He said that the market showed resistance whenever it reached its opening level.
Irfan said that bulk of profit-taking pressure was seen in OGDC, Bank of Punjab, National Bank, PSO, Habib Bank, and Askari Bank. He said that conflicting news about ending exemption on capital gain tax also affected the sentiment and forced people to go for profit-taking. The stocks, who fared better, were Pervez Ahmed Securities and Nishat Mills, which were locked at their higher cap limits, he said.
Some of other stocks such as Pakistan Refinery, Engro Chemical, Pace Pakistan Limited, and Arif Habib Securities performed well and gained strength on the back of fresh buying. Commenting on how the market will perform in the upcoming sessions, Irfan said: "If we look at the political situation, as such there appears nothing negative on this front, but investors concerns about certain issues, especially the restoration of judges, could lead the market toward volatility," he added.
Out of a total of 122 scrips, 24 moved up, 41 went down while 57 were unchanged. Among top gainers, Pakistan Refinery was up Rs 11.30, Engro Chemical Rs 8.00, Nishat Mills Rs 6.15, Pervez Ahmed Securities Rs 3.80, and MCB Bank Rs 3.50.
In negative zone, PSO was down Rs 6.00, First Capital Securities Rs 5.65, Century Insurance Rs 4.75, JOVC Rs 2.15, and National Bank Rs 2.10. Arif Habib Securities was the volume leaders with 3.458 million shares followed by Bank Alfalah with 3.350 million shares.