Bearish sentiment prevailed at Lahore Stock Exchange on Monday and the equities registered losses amid descending transaction volume on account of lack of buying interest on the part of investors and institutions. The LSE-25 index lost 39.49 points and closed at 2948.90 against 2988.39 of last Friday. Ttrading turnover declined to 14.253 million shares as compared to 22.466 million shares.
PSO, Arif Habib Securities, Engro Chemical and Askari Bank resisted declines while MCB Bank, Habib Bank, National Bank, Allied Bank, Bank Alfalah and NIB Bank, PPL and Mari Gas remained under selling pressure and closed in red zone. The market opened on a depressed note and kept on moving up and down till midday.
In the absence of buying support, the market could not sustain at any level and kept on declining till the closing of trading. According to the market experts, the sentiment was depressed because of the terrorist attack on GHQ and controversy on the US aid bill, said Aamir Hussain of Invest Cap.
He said that the government had no option other than receiving financial assistance from the USA to ensure smooth functioning of the country's affairs, he said. He said the introduction of client level margin that would be determined by the exchange itself also forced the investors to stay away from the buying course that resulted in considerably low trading volume. The market may show mix trend in next couple of days, he said adding the investors should adopt "wait and see" policy to avert any loss.
Losers were more than gainers, as out of a total of 117 active issues, 20 companies registered gains, 55 landed in negative column, while values of 42 companies stayed unchanged at their previous levels. Millat Tractors improved by Rs 22.16, Packages gained Rs 8.79, PSO appreciated by Rs 5.05 while Arif Habib Securities and Engro Chemical were up by Rs 2.19 and Rs 1.00 respectively.
On the contrary, Mari Gas lost Rs 16.56, Arif Habib Securities declined by Rs 9.36, Habib Bank shed Rs 3.45 while ICI Pakistan and PPL were down by Rs 3.14 and Rs 2.73 respectively. Bank Alfalah was market leader whose 2.682 million shares changed hands, followed by Arif Habib Securities with 2.005 million shares.