Bullish sentiment dominated at the Lahore Stock Exchange on Wednesday where equities kept on rising amid ascending trading turnover, following fresh buying in oil, cement and fertiliser shares. Yet the LSE-25 index declined slightly, by 1.43 points, and closed at 3308.66 points against 3310.09 points of Tuesday, while transaction volume improved to 3.566 million shares as compared to 2.415 million shares.
The market opened on a positive sign and stayed in green zone throughout the day, as investors, in anticipation of the approval of margin financing product, stayed on buying course to pick select scrips, most of oil, cement, and fertiliser sectors, analysts said. As a result, Attock Refinery, PSO, PPL, Byco Petroleum, Fauji Fertiliser, Lucky Cement and D G Khan Cement posted gains while Habib Bank, Arif Habib Securities, Adamjee Insurance also performed well.
However, during last trading hour, the investors preferred profit taking and offloaded what they had bought during early hours. This resulted in minor selling pressure. As a result, Pak Oilfields, OGDC, MCB Bank, National Bank, Bank Alfalah, Nishat Mills, Nishat Chunian and Lotte Pakistan PTA and ICI Pakistan suffered losses.
Advancing stocks were ahead of declining ones, as out of 111 active issues, 34 companies recorded gains and 26 landed in negative zone, while 51 companies stayed glued to their previous levels. Attock Refinery improved by Rs 3.76, PSO gained Rs 2.62, and PPL appreciated by Rs 2.50, while Adamjee Insurance and Arif Habib Securities were up by Rs 1.67 and Rs 1.51 respectively.
Allied Bank lost Rs 1.50 and Century Paper and Board declined by Rs 1.05, while Pakistan Synthetics and ICI Pakistan depreciated by 98 paisa and 55 paisa respectively. Arif Habib Securities, with trading of 952,048 shares, topped the volume leaders, followed by Lotte Pakistan with 365,515 shares.