Downtrend continued on Lahore Stock Exchange on Wednesday and extended losses amid descending transaction volume on account of profit taking, but fresh buying in select shares during last trading hour helped the market to partly recover early losses. The LSE-25 index slipped by 6.83 points ending at 2382.31 points level against 2389.14 of Tuesday.
Turnover declined to 30.508 million shares as compared to 45.559 million shares. Oil companies including PSO, PPL, and Attock Refinery performed well while ICI Pakistan, MCB Bank, and D.G. Khan Cement also recorded gains. However, other banking shares like Allied Bank, United Bank, Habib Bank, Bank Al-Habib, National Bank, Bank of Punjab, Bank Alfalah, NIB Bank remained under pressure. Besides, Pak Oilfields, Shell Pak, OGDC, Adamjee Insurance also closed in red zone.
The market kept on moving up and down amid bearish sentiment throughout the day. Soon after commencement of trading, the index crossed the level of 2400 points, but selling pressure dragged it into negative column. The market once slid down by over 100 points to below 2300 points, but some buying in select scrips helped the market recover its position to close with marginal loss of 6.83 points.
Market pundits said that conditionalities set by US administration for financial assistance to Pakistan and linking the donors pledges with the performance forced the investors to offload their holdings. Profit taking was also one of the reasons of decline.
Losers led the gainers as out of 124 active issues, 20 companies registered gains, 52 stayed in red zone, and 52 companies closed at their previous closing levels. In positive column, PSO improved by Rs 7.43, PPL gained Rs 6.32, ICI Pak appreciated by Rs 6.00 while Service Industries and Attock Refinery were up by Rs 6.00 and Rs 5.58 respectively.
Among losers, Pak Oilfields lost Rs 8.33, Engro Chemical declined by Rs 5.33, Shell Pak shed Rs 5.01, while Adamjee Insurance and Allied Bank were down by Rs 3.14 and Rs 2.37 respectively. Bank Alfalah with trading of 3.141 million shares stayed volume leaders.