Mixed sentiment prevailed at Lahore Stock Exchange on Tuesday where equities moved both ways amid selling pressure because of untoward incident which occurred in the Sindh Assembly on Monday.
The LSE-25 index fractionally improved up by 2.13 points to close at 4814.24 points against 4812.11 of Monday, while transaction increased to 28.325 million shares as compared to 23.397 million shares traded a day earlier. Securities companies including Javed Omer and Vohra and Co, Pervez Ahmed Securities and PACE Pakistan remained under pressure while Engro Chemical from the fertiliser sector, PSO, Pak Oilfields, D G Khan Cement, Lucky Cement and Arif Habib Securities managed to close in the green zone.
The market opened on a healthy note and kept on moving in the positive zone during early trading hour. However, sentiment started melting due to panic selling. The investors preferred offloading of their holdings to get out of the market at the available margins. Market experts were of the view that the mishandling of former Sindh chief minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim had ignited selling pressure which kept the investors away from the buying course, said Javed Iqbal of Javed Iqbal Securities.
He said the oil sector, because of rumour of the issuance of GDR, remained attractive and helped the market avert decline. Pak Oilfields and PSO recorded improvement of Rs 5.50 and Rs 4.10 respectively. He said the fertiliser sector was likely to play contributory role in keeping the market in positive column. The increasing prices of fertilisers, including DAP and urea reflected the shortage in the country.
The investors believe the entire production of fertilisers are being consumed locally and thus there is no issue of over-supply because of the fertiliser sector is attracting investors. The financial results of the corporate sector supported the market and investors' long-term approach on the investment also appears to be encouraging.
Declining stocks were ahead of advancing ones as out of 106 active issues, 21 companies registered gains, 34 went down while 51 stayed glued to their previous levels. Among gainers, Pakistan Reinsurance Company improved by Rs 23.85, Engro Chemical gained Rs 10.25 while Arif Habib Securities and Pak Oil Fields were up by Rs 6.50 and Rs 5.50.
In the minus column, First Capital Securities lost Rs 5.35, D.S Industries declined by Rs 3.50, while Habib Bank and Javed Omer Vohra and Co were down by Rs 2.40 and Rs 2.30. Arif Habib Securities was market leader whose 6.324 million shares changed hands, followed by D G Khan Cement with total trading of 3.718 million shares.
Comments
Comments are closed.