Bullish trend continued for the fourth consecutive day on Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) where equities registered gains across the board amid reduced transaction volume. The LSE-25 index further improved to 3935.26 against 3889.98 of Wednesday, donating an increase of 45.28 points.
However, trading turnover declined from 75.930 million shares to 64.141 million shares. Pak Oil Field, PSO and Sui Northern from the oil and gas sector, National Bank, Bank of Punjab from the banking sector, Pioneer Cement, Maple Leaf Cement from the cement sector and companies of Mian Mansha Group including Nishat Mills and Adamjee Insurance helped market sentiments to close in positive zone. However, Kapco, PPL and KESC remained under pressure.
The market commenced trading on healthy note and stayed in positive zone during the entire day's trading. The market is moving up on the basis of strong fundamentals for the last many days and may continue the upward trend.
The experts are of the view that entire limit of CFS should not be consumed, to make the market more stable. It would be in the interest of investors as well as brokers to keep the CFS volume under control, said Dr Shahid A. Zia of Switch Securities of Pakistan, while commenting on the market trend.
Despite the strike call given by MMA and opposition parties, there was no panic in the market and investors most of the time stayed on buying course that helped market maintain upward trend, he added. However, the ready board was not active and movement was seen in only speculative shares.
The government may behind the recent move, he apprehended. Apart from banking, oil and cement sector shares, companies of Mian Mansha also attracted the investors and closed higher with appreciation in their values. It is only intra-day trading which on the basis of fresh entries, could keep the market moving up.
In coming days, auto sector is likely to lead the rallies, as good earnings are expected from auto sector shares including Dewan Farooq Motors, Indus Motors and Honda Atlas Car, he opined.
Out of a total of 75 companies, 31 appreciated its values, 12 landed in negative column, while 32 remained unchanged. Among gainers, Pak Oil Field appreciated by Rs 11.25, PSO gained Rs 10.50, Engro Chemical moved up by Rs 3.55, while Nishat Mills and Adamjee Insurance were up by Rs 3.10 and Rs 2.00, respectively. In negative column, United Bank and Kapco lost Rs 0.95 each, ICI Pak moved down by Rs 0.50, while Bank Alfalah was down by Rs 0.15.
National Bank was the market leader whose 10.519 million shares changed hands followed by PTCL with total transaction of 8.812 million shares.