The Lahore stock on Monday continued the last week lacklustre condition in the absence of institutional or retail investors' interest and equities under the lead of blue chip registered losses amid a low trading activity.
The LSE-25 index lost 33.41 points and closed at 3687.23 against 3720.64 of last Friday while transaction volume fractional improved from previous week trading of 212,600 shares to 431,600 shares on account of fresh entries in Bank Alflah. All prime equities, including Pak Oil Fields, Attock Refinery, PPL, OGDC, MCB Bank, National Bank, Allied Bank, NIB Bank, Sui Northern, Pakistan PTA, Pakistan Cement Company, and DG Khan Cement stayed in minus column.
They closed and showed trading of insignificant number of shares except Bank Alfalah posting a marginal loss of Rs 0.40 with high trading volume of 326,000 shares. Only a single company - Orix Investment Bank - closed in green zone with a gain of Rs 0.11.
The market opened on a depressed note and moved in red zone during the entire Monday's trading. The experts were anticipating that after a six consecutive trading sessions with lower cap limit of one percent, the market rebounded and broke the lower limit.
"Unfortunately, the bombing in Islamabad claiming 21 lives and leaving dozens injured disallowed the sentiments to improve," said Mirza Muhammad Irfan, equity research head, Capital Vision Securities.
A little recovery was seen in the Bank Alflah failing to sustain following lack of support. It is a fact that the market always moves amid downhearted sentiments during June-July of every year, but the present situation has further aggravated because of the prevailing political uncertainty, operation against the militants in Fata, and the persistent rupee's depreciation in the open market. All the positive things like payment of outstanding amounts to the oil companies and continuity in capital gain tax exemption could not be discounted, he said.
The increasing interbank rate for the US dollar and its rising value in the open market may lead to the State Bank of Pakistan for taking monetary step to check the unabated dollar's appreciation. The State Bank may enhance the bank's discount rate but it could leave negative impact on the stocks business, he maintained.
He said the revision of lower cap limit of one percent has been proved as an effective tool to keep the market's downward move at certain level. Because of one percent lower limit, the market has observed all the shocks, he said and added the same should be remain intact for the future unless and until the market starts improving on fundamental basis.
Out of 85 active issues, one company closed with positive note, 23 lost their values while 61 remained unchanged at their previous levels. PSO lost Rs 3.51, MCB Bank shed Rs 3.14, while Attock Refinery and PPL were down by Rs 2.41 and Rs 2.37.