Bullish sentiment dominated on Lahore Stock Exchange on Wednesday and the equities registered gains across the board amid ascending transaction volume on account of fresh buying in oil, banking and insurance sectors. The LSE-25 index rose to 3005.23 points against 2964.48 of Tuesday, denoting a gain of 40.75 points. Trading turnover moved up to 17.272 million shares as compared to 12.162 million shares.
Pak Oilfields, PSO, Attock Refinery, Shell Pak, Arif Habib Securities, MCB Bank, Bank Alfalah, National Bank, Bank of Punjab, Nishat Mills and D G Khan Cement supported the market and closed with visible gains. On the contrary, Habib Bank, Royal Bank, Atlas Bank, Silk Bank and Hub Power remained under pressure and closed in minus column.
The market opened on a positive sign, about over 40 points above the day earlier closing and kept on moving in green zone almost throughout the day. Investors made fresh entries in selective shares in anticipation of handsome gain in short term, said Javed Iqbal of Javed Iqbal Securities.
He said that it was client level margins that created confusion among investors and brokers. Every investor would have to maintain 96 percent margin, both for sale and purchase, for the second category shares. Similarly, the brokers dealing with other exchanges have also to maintain the same level of margin. This confused the investors who stayed away from buying course, he added.
He was of the view that this system would bring transparency in shares transactions but it was implemented without taking the stakeholders into confidence. In case a proper homework had been done, it would have produced good results, he added. "We are optimistic of the early resolve of the issue, as meetings are underway in this regard", he said. Gainers were more than the losers, as out of a total of 129 companies, 64 showed strength, 14 closed with losses and values of 51 companies remained unchanged.
Shell Pak gained Rs 13.00, Indus Motors improved by Rs 9.74, Pak Oilfields appreciated by Rs 9.22, while ICI Pak and PSO were up by Rs 8.90 and Rs 8.50 respectively. Habib Bank lost Rs 2.33, and Mari Gas declined by 60 paisa, while First IBL Modaraba and Royal Bank of Scotland were down by 47 paisa and 46 paisa respectively. Arif Habib topped the volume leaders with trading of 3.981 million shares.