Bearish trend continued on the Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) where equities registered more losses under the lead of the petroleum sector shares on account of prevailing confusion regarding the issue of capital value tax (CVT). The LSE-25 index declined by 7.27 points, closing at 2583.37 against 2590.64 of Monday, while trading volume increased to 47.982 million shares as compared to 38.383 million shares traded a day earlier.
Though Askari Commercial Bank, Engro Chemical, DG Cement, Bank of Punjab, Hub Power, and National Bank helped equities improve their positions, but PPL, PSO, Adamjee Insurance, Lucky Cement, OGDC, and Fauji Cement restricted the market into negative zone.
The market, which opened on a depressed note, remained in negative zone throughout the day. However, during last hour, institutional support was seen, which failed to push market into plus column.
The investors were eyeing meeting between the prime minister and the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) chairman in which the CVT issue will be discussed.
However, the delay in this meeting due to prime minister's visit to Dushanbe, the panic was created among the investors, who started offloading their holdings to secure their positions.
As a result, a selling pressure was seen which is likely to continue, said Javed Iqbal of Javed Iqbal Securities, while commenting on market sentiments.
He said the market would hardly gain momentum till the settlement of the CVT issue. The government would just generate an income of Rs 1.5 billion under the head of the CVT during the whole year while market has lost about Rs 75 billion during last two and half months, he maintained.
Javed Iqbal said the institutions, during last hour, made fresh entries, to pick the scrips and also provide support to the market. But negative sentiments did not allow the market to change its direction, he added.
Declining stocks were ahead of advancing ones, as out of a total of 84 active issues, 18 companies registered gains, 23 landed in negative column, while 43 stayed glued to its previous levels.
In the positive column, Fauji Fertiliser gained Rs 2.90, Askari Commercial Bank and Engro Chemical improved by Re 1.00 each, while Southern Electric and DG Khan Cement were up by 45 paisa and 40 paisa, respectively.
In the negative column, PPL declined by Rs 2.00, PSO lost Rs 1.75, while Admajee Insurance and Pakistan Oil Field were down by Rs 1.25 and Re 1.00, respectively.
DG Khan Cement was the market leader whose 10.156 million shares changed hands followed by Bank of Punjab with total transaction of 9.874 million shares.