Bullish rally continued for the second consecutive day on the Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) on Thursday and the equities extended further gains amid improved trading turnover on account of strong support in oil, banking, cement and fertiliser sectors.
The LSE-25 index further jumped by 86.60 days to close at 2257.57 against 2170.97 of Wednesday while transaction volume significantly improved to 18.020 million shares as compared to 9.386 million shares traded a day earlier. The blue chips of the oil, banking, cement and fertilizer sectors performed well and closed in positive column with handsome turnover.
While continuing day earlier sentiments, the market opened on a healthy note and stayed in positive zone throughout the day. Because of substantial increase in petroleum prices, the investors' interest in oil sector shares including PSO, Pak Oil Fields, Attock Refinery, PPL, and OGDC that helped maintain positive sentiments. The energy sector also remained attractive, as Sui Northern, Kot Addu Power, Hub Power and Southern Electric Power also appreciated their worth.
MCB Bank, National Bank, Habib Bank, Bank Alfalah, Bank of Punjab, Askari Bank, United Bank, Allied Bank and Standard Chartered Bank of the banking sector, Fauji Fertiliser, Engro Chemical and Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim of the fertiliser sector also supported the market. On the contrary, the Silk Bank, MyBank and IGI Investment Bank remained under pressure and closed with losses.
According to the analysts, the market future outlook is expected to remain positive in next couple of months that encouraged the investors to keep on buying selective shares till the closing of market. Besides, the foreign investors interest is also being developed in the local bourses, which could be evident from the upward change in special convertible rupee account (SCRA). The experts are optimistic of further decline in mark up rate that would further help improve inflow into stock business.
The advancing stocks were far ahead of declining ones as out of a total of 123 companies, 57 appreciated their values, 10 went down, while values of 56 companies closed at their previous levels. PSO gained Rs 7.40, Pak Oil Fields was improved by Rs 7.31, Attock Refinery was appreciated by Rs 6.55, while Engro Chemical and PPL were up by Rs 6.08, 5.61, respectively.
In the minus column, Honda Atlas Cars and Royal Bank of Scotland lost 25-paisa each, while Silk Bank and IGI Investment Bank were declined by 21-paisa and 18-paisa, respectively. D.G. Khan Cement with 3.280 million shares topped the volume leaders followed by Arif Habib Securities with 2.047 million shares.
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