Bearish trend prevailed on the Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) where equities registered declines across the board under the lead of oil and gas sector mainly because of technical correction. The LSE-25 index fell down to 4,620.15 points, denoting a further decline of 80.86 points against Wednesday's closing of 4,701.01 points.
Transaction volume marginally increased from Wednesday's 39.415 million shares to 40.578 million due to selling pressure. The index based oil sector shares including PSO, PPL, Pak Oil Field and OGDC dragged the market into red zone while the banking sector including National Bank, Bank of Punjab, MCB Bank, Prime Commercial bank, Bank Alfalah, Faysal Bank appreciated their worth and closed in the green zone.
The market, which commenced trading on depressed note, remained under selling pressure that continued throughout the day. During last trading hours, there was sign of recovery that made the investors optimistic about a bullish rally on last trading day of the week. There was no such big news on the economic front that could push the market downward.
Experts were of the view the opposition has announced the date for tabling no confidence move against the Prime Minister. This created a selling pressure, which discouraged the investors to stay on buying course who preferred to offload their holdings to secure their positions.
Major reason of the market decline was technical correction because it has been presenting bullish trend for the last eight trading sessions and technical correction had become due.
On Thursday, the market also witnessed an intra-day correction to which analysts said it was healthy sign for the market future, said Dr Moatism Billa of Techno Fundamental Securities while commenting on the market trend.
Intra-day corrections on Thursday indicate that market would take upward move on Friday while banking and oil and gas sectors would contribute their support to the market, he added. Moreover, companies' results would also help market move in positive zone during next couple of days, he maintained.
Out of a total of 100 active issues, 12 companies improved their values, 40 closed in minus column, while 48 remained unchanged at their overnight levels.
Among gainers, National Bank and Bank of Punjab gained Rs 1.95 each, Faysal Bank improved by Rs 1.75, ICI Pak Rs 1.60 while Pioneer Cement and MCB Bank moved up by Rs 1.40 and Rs 1.05, respectively. In the minus column, PSO lost Rs 10.00, Pak Oil Fields declined by Rs 8.50, PPL depreciated by Rs 7.80, Attock Refinery shed Rs 6.60 while OGDC and United Bank were down by Rs 3.90 and Rs 3.50, respectively.
Bank of Punjab appeared as volume leader with 4.929 million shares, followed by MCB Bank with trading of 4.757 million shares.