Equities moved both the ways and remained range bound on the Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE), however institutional support helped index to close in positive column.
The LSE-25 index improved by 29.51 points, closing at 2754.60 against 2725.09 of last Friday, while transaction volume declined to 41.939 million shares as compared to 51.294 million shares traded on last trading day. Fresh buying in Sui Northern, Bank of Punjab, Oil and Gas Development Co, and Sui Southern helped market improvement, while Dewan Farooq Motors, Hub Power, WorldCall Communication; Bosicor Pakistan remained under pressure.
The market opened on a depressed note and remained in negative column during early hours of trading mainly on account of lacking support of small investors.
However, the potential buyers as well as institutions made fresh entries and dragged the market from negative to positive zone.
The market tempo was negative due to sad incident in Quetta on Ashura day, which claimed more than 27 lives and causing injuries to hundreds.
The similar incident in Iraq on the same occasion claimed over 170 lives and added to negative sentiments. Both the incidents took place during holidays otherwise market could have been drastically declined if such news were reported in working days, said Ahmed Nabeel of Invest and Finance Securities, while commenting on market trend.
The general investors were on the sideline that made the lacklustre conditions for the market which witnessed considerably low volume. Another factor, which contributed to negative sentiments, was increase in the rates of six-month Treasury Bills. However, these factors are purely temporary and investors must adopt 'sell on strength' policy to pocket the margin and avert loss, he added.
The investors are not optimistic about the Hubco results as they are anticipating 15-18 percent dividend, which is below their expectations. The experts are of the view that the present trend could prolong till the third week of March. However, PSO can bring a turnaround in the tempo provided its bidding date is announced otherwise market would remain in range-bound, he maintained.
Advancing and declining stocks were almost equal as out of a total of 104 active issues, 22 improved its values, 21 registered losses, while 61 stayed glued to its previous levels.
Pak Oil Field gained Rs 3.55, Sui Northern improved by Rs 2.95, while Bank Al-Habib and Adamjee Insurance were up by Rs 2.10 and Rs 1.85, respectively.
WorldCall declined by Rs 0.70, Zeal Pak Cement lost Rs 0.68, while Dewan Farooq Motors and National Bank were down by Rs 0.60 and Rs 0.55, respectively.
KESC was the market leader whose 6.008 million shares changed hands, followed by OGDC with total trading of 5.753 million shares.