Share prices staged a sharp rally on the Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) on Monday, with oil and gas sector, refineries and telecom stocks remaining in the forefront, resultantly, the market ended with a substantial gain of 1.30 percent.
The LSE-25 index surged to 4,913.16 points from 4,849.88 of the last closing, depicting an increase of 63.28 points. Turnover also showed an upward movement and finally ended at 61.902 million shares compared with previous 58.309 million, increasing by 3.593 million shares.
The market showed an aggressive tone with an overwhelming interest in the oil and gas sector, especially in refineries, which took the lead on Monday. According to analysts, there were multiple factors, helping the bulls dominate proceedings, including positive reports of the oil exploration sector and foreign buying in selective chips, especially in banking stocks.
Besides oil and gas sector and banks, cement sector also performed well in view of rising demand for cement and increase in profitability, they added. Shell Pakistan on Monday was the most active scrip followed by Attock Refinery while UBL and Bank Alfalah led the losers' column.
The market outperformed while key oil and gas shares and refineries reached their upper cap limits, said Mirza Ejaz Ullah Baig, director, Capital Vision Securities Ltd Attock Refinery showed an aggressive tone on expectations of relief from the Supreme Court of Pakistan regarding PSO bidding issue, he added.
Another sector, which did pretty well, was the telecom sector, and notably small shares in the sector fared better on reports of their increased profitability. There are also reports of TRG merger, which also added to the sentiment, he pointed out.
Meanwhile, foreign buyers' interest is a significant factor for the bullishness of the market, he pointed out. He said the sentiment is bullish, but political rumours are causing disappointment and preventing investors, particularly the small ones, to stay on sidelines, due to fears of political instability in the country.
Out of a total of 158 traded scrips, 40 were up, 28 landed in minus column, while 90 were unchanged to their previous levels. Among major gainers, Shell Pakistan was up Rs 8.55, Attock Refinery Rs 5.35, ICI Pakistan and PPL Rs 5.00 each, and SNGPL Rs 3.10.
In minus column, UBL declined by Rs 5.45, Bank Alfalah Rs 4.05, Askari Commercial Bank Rs 3.35, PSO Rs 2.35, and Pervez Ahmed Securities Rs 2.10. Pakistan PTA and Fauji Cement were the volume leaders with 6.809 million and 5.344 million shares, respectively.