Share prices maintained rising tempo on Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) on Friday, the last trading day of the week, following buying in fertilisers and oil and gas sector, which helped the index gain further strength.
The LSE-25 index moved up by 34.38 points, reaching 4,929.97 points from 4,895.59 of Thursday. Volume also increased by 9.860 million shares to 63.596 million shares from 53.736 million shares of the previous session.
The market opened on a bullish note and then moved into the positive zone with bulk of activity remaining centered in a few scrips such as Engro Chemical, oil refineries and exploration companies. Engro Chemical and OGDC were the most active in the day while broader market was depressed, analysts said. Banks also stayed depressed while PSO came under heavy pressure on Supreme Court move to stay its bidding, they added.
Oil sector, especially the refineries, and fertilisers outperformed the rest of the market which was not much active following the news regarding PSO bidding and issuance of notices by Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to Arif Habib Securities and Javed Omer Vohra & Co, Amer Hussain Khan, equity sales head of Invest and Finance Securities Ltd said. Due to the SECP notices, both Arif Habib Securities and Javed Omer Vohra reached their lower cap limits, he added.
SECP in the notices to these scrips has questioned the recent unusual surge in their share prices, he pointed out. All fertilisers were on their upper cap limits following the news of price surge in the international market, he stated. In all, 137 scrips changed hands on the floor, of which, 29 were up, 37 stayed in negative zone while 71 were intact to their previous levels.
In positive zone, Engro Chemical was up Rs 13.35, Adamjee Insurance Rs 8.95, Attock Refinery Rs 6.40, PPL Rs 3.85 and OGDC Rs 2.60. In minus column, Bank of Punjab was down by Rs 4.70, Mybank Ltd and MCB Bank Rs 2.00 each while PSO and National Bank shed Rs 1.90 and Rs 1.55, respectively. Bosicor Pakistan and Arif Habib Securities Ltd were the volume leaders with 7.584 million shares and 6.324 million shares, respectively.