Bearish sentiments dominated on the Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) on Monday where equities maintained downward slide amid sluggish trading trend due to lacking interest on the part of investors. The LSE-25 index marginally improved by 7.52 points and was closed at 3321.68 against 3314.16 of last Friday while transaction volume slightly improved to 3.218 million shares as compared to previous volume of 3.079 million shares.
The market opened on a positive note and vertically improved by over 30 points. However, rising trend could not continue in the absence of buying support. The market started moving down, as investors kept on offloading their holdings to secure their positions.
The banking companies like MCB Bank, Habib Bank, Faysal Bank, helped market avert more declines. PSO, OGDC and Byco Petroleum of the oil sector also performed well. However, Attock Refinery, Pak Oil Fields, Engro Corporation, Lucky Cement, Flying Cement, United Bank, Engro Polymer and Chemical, NetSol Technologies, Adamjee Insurance, Lotte Pakistan PTA, Bank Alfalah, and Arif Habib Securities remained under pressure.
The declining stocks were far ahead of declining ones, as out of a total of 112 active issues, 16 companies posted gains, 45 registered losses while 51 companies stayed glued to their previous levels. Habib Bank gained Rs 2.39, MCB Bank was improved by Rs 2.37, IGI Insurance was appreciated by Rs 2.22, while PSO and OGDC were up by Rs 1.54 and Rs 1.14 respectively.
Attock Refinery lost Rs 1.22, Pak Oil Fields was declined by Rs 1.19, while Lucky Cement and Engro Corporation were down by Rs 1.05 and Rs 0.91 respectively. Lotte Pakistan PTA with trading of 551,591 shares topped the volume leaders followed by Byco Petroleum with 430,853 shares.