Led by oil and gas sector, bearish trend prevailed at Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) mainly on account of profit taking. The LSE-25 index moved down by 13.32 points, and closed at 3921.94 against 3935.26 of Thursday, while transaction volume was restricted to 50.079 million shares as compared to 64.141 million shares traded a day earlier.
Only PSO from oil sector resisted the decline, while other companies including Pak Oilfields, PPL, OGDC and Kapco remained under pressure and closed in minus column. Bank Alfalah, Picic Commercial Bank, MCB, Askari Bank and National Bank helped the market avert more declines.
The market opened on a healthy note, which was continuation of earlier day's sentiment, but due to selling pressure in PTCL and OGDC, which are heavyweight shares in terms of index, forced the market closure in negative zone. Banking sector, once again, maintained upward trend on account of strong fundamentals.
The profitability in the financial reports reaching in the market is likely to keep the stocks in positive zone, and it could gain more points in the next week also, said Ahmad Nabeel of Invest and Finance Securities.
According to him, equities recorded gains due to positive news in the companies of Mansha Group including D G Khan Cement, Nishat Mills, MCB and Adamjee Insurance which helped improve the market sentiment, he added. The KSE crossed the level of 7910 but failed to close above this level due to panic selling at the day end on account of strike call given by the opposition.
Market fundamentals are strong, which may keep the market in positive zone in coming days. However, investors were confused over the increasing rate of CFS, while carryover charges are on their cap limits which could squeeze the trading volume, Nabeel opined.
Declining stocks were ahead of advancing ones, as out of total 85 active issues, 19 companies registered gains, 22 went down, and 44 companies closed at their previous levels. Among the gainers, PSO showed improvement of Rs 2.00, Bank Alfalah and Picic Commercial Bank appreciated Rs 1.60 each. Fauji Fertiliser and MCB were up by Rs 1.45 and Rs 1.40, respectively.
Among the losers, ICI Pak lost Rs 3.00, Pak Oilfields declined by Rs 2.20, Nishat Mills depreciated by Rs 1.90, while PPL and OGDC were down by Rs 1.85 and Re 1.00, respectively.
National Bank was the market leader whose 6.953 million shares changed hands followed by PTCL with total trading of 6.904 million shares.