Bearish sentiments continued to prevail on the Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) on Thursday and the banking sector led the equities downward amid selling pressure on account of US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Mike Mullen's statement that Pentagon has revised strategy to extend its operation in Pakistani areas.
The LSE-25 index marginally declined by 3.65 points and finished at 2872.96 against 2876.61 of Wednesday while trading turnover squeezed to 1.053 million shares as compared to previous volume of 1.809 million shares. All the prime shares, including National Bank, NIB Bank, United Bank, Royal Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, PSO, Sui Northern, Nishat Mills, and Hub Power remained under pressure and closed in minus column. However, Lucky Cement and Fauji Cement from the cement sector resisted declines amid low trading activity.
The market opened on a depressed note and remained in negative zone throughout the day. Because of the KSE Board's decision of freezing the market at August 27 level, the market was already upset. The news published in the national press that US while revising its strategy has included Fata in its area of operation, made the investors more scared. Of 92, four companies managed improvement, 19 registered losses, while 69 companies closed at their overnight closing levels.
Lucky Cement gained Rs 1.17, Fauji Cement improved by 7 paisa while Bosicor Pakistan and Picic Growth Fund showed fractional gain of 4 and 3 paisa, respectively. Royal Bank lost Rs 2.20, PSO declined by Rs 2.00, Sui Northern depreciated 93 paisa while Nishat Mills was down by 89 paisa. NIB Bank stayed market leader with 593,500 shares.