Bearish sentiments prevailed at the Lahore Stock Exchange on Monday and the equities registered losses amid reduced trading volume due to lacking interest on the part of investors. The LSE-25 index lost 26.49 points and ended at 1680.87 against 1707.36 of last Friday while trading volume squeezed to 6.430 million shares as compared to previous volume of 7.121 million shares.
The market opened on a depressed note and stayed in the negative zone during the entire day's trading. The prevailing political uncertainty restricted the investors who remained on the sideline. The investors in anticipation of further intensifying confrontation between the government and the PML (N) leadership on the issue of long march and sit-in in the federal capital forced the investors to stay away from the buying course, said Muhammad Ishaq of Abbasi and Company while commenting on the market trend. The equities are staying range-bound for the last week and expected to show dull activity during the next couple of days, he added.
The analysts are of the view that once the political issues are resolved, and things start improving, the market would show bullish rallies with the support of high yields oriented shares of banking, power and energy, fertiliser and insurance sectors, he said adding the European countries have lifted anti-dumping duty on Pakistani textile products, particularly on the bedlinen which would provide substantial support to the textile companies.
Of 104 active issues, 13 companies registered gains, 48 landed in minus column while 43 stayed glued to their previous levels. Among gainers, Attock Refinery posted gain of Rs 3.52, Adamjee Insurance was improved by Rs 2.48 while Allied Bank and Honda Atlas Cars were up by Rs 0.37 and Rs 0.31 respectively. In the negative column, Shell Pak lost Rs 8.86, PSO declined by Rs 5.64, Pak Oil Fields shed Rs 4.63, while Engro Chemical and MCB Bank were down by Rs 2.16 and Rs 1.87 respectively. NIB Bank was the market leader whose 1.241 million shares changed hands.