Bullish trend prevailed on the Lahore Stock Exchange on Tuesday where equities registered gains amid ascending transaction volume on account of investors' interest who made fresh entries in the cement sector.
The LSE-25 index improved by 13.42 points, closing at 4759.92 against 4746.50 of Monday while trading turnover increased to 49.943 million shares as compared to 40.314 million shares traded a day earlier.
DG Khan Cement, Lucky Cement, Pioneer Cement, Pakistan Cement Company, Fauji Cement, Maple Leaf Cement and Kohat Cement from the cement sector, MCB Bank, Bank of Punjab and Soneri Bank from the banking sector helped market stay in the green zone while PSO, Pak Oil Field, PPL, Attock Refinery from the oil sector, United Bank and National Bank from the banking sector remained under pressure.
The market opened on a healthy note and remained in the positive zone throughout Tuesday. The market sentiments were encouraging because of improvement in SCRA to $897 million which attracted the fresh buying.
The cement sector performed well which closed near the upper cap level. The market experts said the cement sector gain was due to the government's allocation for the construction of water reservoirs and the investors, in anticipation of increase in cement consumption, kept buying the cement companies' shares all the day.
However, the oil sector could not contribute to the market gain and all the giant companies including PSO, Pak Oil Field and PPL registered losses due to selling pressure. The experts were of the view that profit-taking pushed the petroleum sector downward. They further showed optimism that because of relief in the next budget, the insurance sector could show upward move.
They advised the investors to avoid picking heavy weight shares which due to profit-taking could cause loss to them. The cement sector, fertiliser sector and property-based funds would help market improve in near future, they added.
Declining stocks were just ahead of advancing ones as out of a total of 143 active issues, 30 companies registered gains, 33 went down, while 80 companies stayed glued to their previous levels.
Among the gainers, MCB Bank appreciated by Rs 5.80, Lucky Cement gained Rs 5.10, Honda Atlas Cars improved by Rs 3.10, while Callmate Telips Telecom and DG Khan Cement were up by Rs 2.15 and Rs 1.85, respectively.
Among the losers, PSO declined by Rs 4.25, ICI Pak lost Rs 4.20, United Bank depreciated by Rs 4.00 while Pak Oil Fields and Engro Chemical were down by Rs 3.90 and Rs 3.40 respectively. DG Khan Cement was the market leader whose 10.002 million shares changed hands followed by Fauji Cement with total transaction of 5.912 million shares.