Equity prices moved both ways on the local bourse on Thursday, with activity remaining range-bound, as investors adopted a cautious approach ahead of Moharram-ul-Harram.
The LSE-25 index showed a marginal improvement of 4.27 points to 2710.73 from Thursday's 2706.46. Turnover remained on the lower side and was marked at 50.554 million shares compared with 52.261 million of the previous session, depicting a fall of 1.707 million shares.
The market painted mixed picture and kept bouncing up and down throughout the day, amid lack of support from key players. According to stock analysts, the market behaved roughly and remained volatile, taking no clear direction. However, the index that was in the negative zone in the second half of the session entered the positive territory a few minutes before the closure, they added.
The market may come under pressure on Friday which is week's last trading day, however, in case of institutional support the trend could change, they added.
Dr Shahid Zia, head of research at Switch Securities Ltd., said that the market is lacking support from investors who were very careful in taking fresh deals ahead of Moharram.
They are not ready to take any risk apprehending any untoward situation during the Moharram holidays, he added. The stock market will remain closed for four days, from Saturday to Tuesday, on account of Moharram. There is also a perception in the market that Wana operation could be retaliated and that sort of thinking is a factor to keep investors and key players away from the market, he observed.
Another factor for slowing down the activity is 'below expectation' results of corporate sector.
Though MCB, Bank of Punjab, Faysal Bank and some other sectors have announced good results, these are perhaps below expectations, as people were expecting much more than these companies have announced. "Therefore, I feel the market is unlikely to pick up pace and may remain range-bound till the index achieves 5,000 level," he viewed.
In all, there were 20 gainers against 23 losers with 45 staying unchanged, out of a total of 88 scrips changing hands on the day.
The day's key gainers were Picic Commercial Bank, improving by Rs 2.90, Genertech Pakistan and ICI Pakistan Rs 1.30 each, while OGDC and Dewan Farooq Motors gained Re 0.80 each. In the minus zone, Hub Power Company, Bank of Punjab and Faysal Bank declined by Re 0.80 each, while Mashreq Bank Pakistan and Pakistan Industrial Credit shed Re 0.71 and Re 0.70, respectively.
OGDC was the volume leader with turnover of 11.005 million shares followed by PTCL with 8.211 million shares.