Mixed sentiment was observed on Lahore Stock Exchange on Wednesday and equities kept on moving up and down throughout the day and closed with marginal losses amid reduced trading volume on account of lacking interest on the part of investors.
The LSE-25 index declined by 4.41 points and closed at 2846.33 against 2850.74 points of Tuesday, while transaction volume restricted to 15.695 million shares compared with previous volume of 17.352 million shares. The market resumed trading on mixed note and showed up and down movement during entire day's trading. Profit taking on strength and buying on dips was seen.
According to analysts, the bomb blast, killing over 80 people besides injuring over 200 was also one of the factors that discouraged investors. Besides, the financial results of some companies, including Sui Northern Gas and Bank Alfalah, whose profit declined, also forced investors to offload their holdings that pushed the market down. However, buying on dip helped the market avert more declines, analysts said.
Losers were more than the gainers, as out of a total of 99 active issues, 32 companies posted gains, 34 went down, while 33 companies were closed at their previous levels. Service Industries showed an improvement of Rs 12.76, Adamjee Insurance gained Rs 5.77, ICI Pakistan appreciated by Rs 2.51, while Engro Chemical and D G Khan Cement were up by Rs 2.18 and Rs 1.46, respectively.
On the contrary, PSO lost Rs 3.93, PPL declined by Rs 3.79, Attock Refinery shed Rs 3.23, while Shell Pak and Pakistan Oilfields were down by Rs 2.57 and Rs 2.46 respectively. Arif Habib Securities with trading of 2.524 million shares topped the volume leaders, followed by Pakistan PTA with 1.953 million shares.