Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) on Monday remained dominated by bullish sentiment and the equities registered appreciated values across the board amid fresh buying in response to reduction in the mark-up rate by 100-base points. The LSE-25 index recorded a gain of 33.50 points and finished at 2352.31 against 2318.81 of last Friday while share transaction volume marginally increased to 27.278 million as compared to 26.495 million traded on last trading day of the previous week.
Oil, banking and fertiliser sectors helped the market stay in positive zone. The market opened on a healthy note and started inching upward following the buying support. Till mid day, the market kept on moving up very slowly and showed sharp rise during the last trading hours to touch the level of 2375.
However, profit taking did not allow the market to sustain at this stage and showed a decline. Despite of the selling pressure, the market managed its closure in the green zone. Aggressive buying was seen in NIB Bank, Bank Alfalah, Bank of Punjab, National Bank, MCB Bank, while Engro Chemical, Adamjee Insurance and PSO also helped market sentiments.
According to the market experts, trading on the LSE moved in anticipation of reduction in mark up in the monetary policy, to be announced by the State Bank of Pakistan. They further said the donor's pledges made at the 'Friends of Pakistan Conference' held in Tokyo, also reflected the confidence posed in Pakistan by the participating countries. It would also help improve the country's image abroad, which in turn would give a boost to the national economy.
Further, the experts hoped that the reduction of 100 base points in the interest rate would help improve industrial activity on one side and would attract the investors' attention on the other.
The gainers were more than the losers, as out of a total of 123 active issues, 62 companies registered gains, 16 went down, while 45 stayed glued to their previous levels. National Refinery saw an improvement by Rs 9.94, MCB Bank gained Rs 8.73, ICI Pak appreciated Rs 7.21, while Engro Chemical and Packages Limited were up by Rs 5.64 and Rs 5.00 respectively.
In addition, Pakistan Reinsurance declined by Rs 3.32, Javed Omer Vohra and Co lost Rs 1.08, while Tandlianwala Sugar Mills and OGDC were down by Rs 1.00 and Rs 0.80 respectively. Through the trading, NIB Bank was the market leader, whose 3.909 million shares changed hands.