Equities moved both the ways on the Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) on Thursday and finally settled in red zone, amid descending trading turnover due to lacking interest on the part of investors and the institutions who remained on the sideline.
The LSE-25 index further slide down to 2023.36 against 2059.09 of Wednesday, denoting a decline of 35.73 points, while transaction volume squeezed to 9.076 million shares as compared to 12.397 million shares traded a day earlier.
The market continued day earlier depressed sentiments and took a start on negative note. The market fell down by 20 points soon after the commencement of trading and remained in red zone for more than an hour. Following fresh buying in ICI Pak, Attock Refinery, Allied Bank, United Bank, Hub Power, and NIB Bank, the market started rising to regain its day loss but could not sustain due to selling pressure.
The investors offloaded their positions, particularly in blue chips including the MCB Bank, National Bank, Bank Alfalah, Bank of Punjab, Pak Oil Fields, PSO, PPL, Adamjee Insurance, Pakistan Reinsurance, Engro Chemical, Nishat Mills, D. G. Khan Cement and Arif Habib Securities. As a result these shares were closed with losses in the minus column.
According to the market pundits, as such there was no news to put the market under pressure rather it was moving on the basis of prevailing sentiments, while the investors preferred intra-day trading. They have adopted buy on dip and sell on strength policy to secure their positions.
The losers were substantially more than the gainers, as out of a total of 109, 16 companies posted gains, 45 stayed in negative zone, while values of 48 companies closed at their previous levels. Among gainers, ICI Pak was improved by Rs 3.11, Attock Refinery gained Rs 1.65, while First IBL Modaraba and Allied Bank were up by Rs 0.99 and Rs 0.75, respectively.
However, MCB Bank in the minus column, lost Rs 6.54, PSO was declined by Rs 6.16, Packages Limited shed Rs 6.00, while PSO and Adamjee Insurance were down by Rs 4.99 and Rs 4.35, respectively. Bank of Punjab with total trading of 0.907 million shares topped the volume leaders followed by D.G. Khan Cement with 0.884 million shares.