Bullish rally continued on Wednesday on Lahore Stock Exchange and the equities registered further gains on account of foreign buying support in blue chips including oil and banking sectors. The LSE-25 index improved by 42.08 points and closed at 2818.05 against 2775.97 of Tuesday, while transaction volume also increased to 27.250 million shares as compared to 26.931 million shares.
Bank Alfalah, Bank of Punjab, National Bank, NIB Bank, MCB Bank, United Bank, PPL and OGDC helped the market stay in green zone while Engro Chemical, Adamjee Insurance, also supported the index. However, PSO, Pak Oilfields, Nishat Mills, Hub Power, Pakistan PTA remained under pressure and closed in minus column.
The market opened on a positive note but could not sustain and remained under pressure. The volatile situation confused the investors as it kept on moving up and down almost during the entire day's trading. According to analysts, the investors adopted buy-on-dip and sell-on-strength policy to avert losses because of the uncertain behaviour of the market.
After a couple of hours, the market showed vertical rise following fresh buying from foreign funds which picked oil and banking shares. Gainers were ahead of losers as out of a total of 109 companies, 40 posted gains, 26 landed in minus column, while 43 stayed unchanged at their previous levels.
Engro Chemical gained Rs 7.33, ICI Pakistan was up by Rs 7.00, Habib Bank improved by Rs 4.20 while National Bank and PPL were up by Rs 3.67 and Rs 2.99 respectively. PSO lost Rs 3.80, PTCL declined by Rs 0.87 while EFU General Insurance and Nishat Mills were down by 60 paisa each. Bank Alfalah was the market leader whose 5.591 million shares changed hands, followed by Pakistan PTA with 4.366 million shares.