The Lahore stock market on Friday presented a dull picture and the volume dried up drastically as big players awaited the outcome of lawyers' long march. The LSE-25 Index ended fractionally up by 2.25 points to reach 4,133.23 compared with Thursday's level of 4,130.98 points.
The volume shrank to 9.318 million shares from previous 12.267 million shares, depicting a fall of 2.949 million shares. The market took a disappointing start and then failed to make any breakthrough. Brokers said that in the absence of big players the volume came down abnormally, which worried investors.
Analysts said that since there was no supporting news, the market turned dull. They added that renewed worries concerning lawyers' long march perturbed people and they preferred to stay at home. At close, declining stocks were more than the advancing ones while banks, exploration sector, securities, fertilisers and insurance scrips registered some gains.
Some brokers said that they saw highly volatile sessions ahead in view of the uncertain political situation, intensified with the lawyers' long march. "It appears that key players are totally out of the market and are not willing to return till lawyers' long march ends," Amer Hussain of Invest and Finance Securities said.
He said that under the prevailing situation, people should avoid taking risks till there is improvement in the political scene. He said that in the near term the market sentiment seems weak but fertilisers, which are the major beneficiary of the relief announced in the federal budget, and insurance sector are likely to shine in the upcoming sessions. Out of total 98 active issues, 27 were up, 32 landed in negative column while 39 stayed intact to their previous levels.
Among key gainers, MCB Bank was up Rs 5.00, PPL Rs 4.05, DS Industries Rs 2.75, Pervez Ahmed Securities Rs 1.85 and Pakistan Oilfields Rs 1.01. In negative column, National Refinery shed Rs 8.08, Pak Suzuki Motors Rs 7.58, ICI Pakistan Rs 5.40, United Bank Rs 5.40 and Allied Bank Rs 3.85. Bank of Punjab was the volume leader with 1.315 million shares.