Bearish sentiment kept the equities range-bound on Lahore Stock Exchange on Monday and trading turnover declined considerably on account of lack of interest on the part of investors who remained on the sidelines. The LSE-25 index declined by 7.11 points and closed at 2736.70 points against 2743.81 points of last Friday, while transaction volume was restricted to 5.956 million shares as compared to 13.040 million shares.
Attock Refinery, Mari Gas, Engro Chemical, Adamjee Insurance, Habib Bank, Allied Bank, United Bank, Bank of Punjab, NIB Bank, Silk Bank and Lucky Cement remained under selling pressure and closed in red zone. However, OGDC, PSO, Flying Cement, Nishat Mills, and Pakistan Reinsurance resisted decline and closed with marginal gains.
The market opened on a healthy note and kept on rising during first half-hour trading. As a result, the index was slide up from 2744 to 2758 points but could not sustain following selling pressure in select shares. s soon as the market touched the day's peak level, the investors started offloading their holdings to secure their positions.
Analysts said that political uncertainty, mainly because of the commencement of the NRO cases in the Supreme Court, forced the investors to go for profit taking. Apart from the political situation, the law and order situation due to bomb blasts in Peshawar and Quetta also restricted the investors from buying course that resulted in significant decline in the trading turnover.
Losers were more than the gainers, as of 91, 16 companies showed strength and posted gains, 41 landed in negative column, while values of 34 companies remained unchanged. EFU General Insurance gained Rs 5.04, Samba Bank improved by Rs 1.00 while Kohinoor Industries and OGDC were up by 81 paisa and 35 paisa respectively. Attock Refinery lost Rs 7.24, Adamjee Insurance declined by Rs 2.68, and ICI Pakistan shed Rs 2.65, while Habib Bank and Allied Bank were down by Rs 1.70 and Rs 1.39 respectively. Bank of Punjab was the market leader whose 877.896 million shares changed hands.