Equities moved both ways on Lahore Stock Exchange on Monday and ended in negative zone amid descending transaction volume while institutions and retail investors offloaded their positions because of profit taking that continued throughout the day.The LSE-25 index lost 19.32 points and ended at 1488.38 against 1507.70 of last Friday.
While trading turnover marginally declined to 20.268 million shares as compared to 22.776 million shares. The market opened on a negative sign and showed rapid decline soon after. However, fresh buying in select scrips led the market upwards and stayed in positive zone for some time but could not sustain due to profit taking on available margins.
The market kept on moving up and down almost the entire day. According to experts, the market needed a technical correction following profit taking to keep the market upward. Losers were more than the gainers as out of a total of 103 companies, 23 showed improvement, 36 landed in negative column, while 44 closed at their previous levels.
MCB Bank gained Rs 4.74 to Rs 99.49, Habib Bank improved Rs 3.11 to Rs 65.23 while National bank, Allied Bank and Arif Habib Bank were also up by Rs 1.52, Rs 1.19 and Rs 0.85 respectively. Fauji Fertiliser appreciated Rs 2.75 while Adamjee Insurance and PICIC Growth also moved up by Rs 2.25 and Rs 1.00 respectively.
However, the petroleum sector succumbed to profit taking. PPL declined by Rs 5.10 to Rs 142.40, Attock Refinery lost Rs 2.39 and closed at Rs 45.39, while OGDC and Pak Oilfields Rs 1.10 and Rs 1.04 respectively. Similarly, Kot Addu Power and Hub Power from energy sector also slid by Rs 1.96 and Rs 1.00 respectively. NIB Bank was market leader with 5.184 million shares, followed by Bank of Punjab with 1.708 million shares.