Equities on Wednesday suffered losses amid volatile situation on the Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) and finally ended in red zone due to selling pressure in the fertiliser, oil and cement sectors' shares. The LSE-25 index lost 17.03 points and was closed at 3303.52 against 3320.55 of Tuesday, while transaction volume was marginally declined to 7.617 million shares, as compared to last day volume of 7.877 million shares.
The market opened on healthy sign and showed up and downward move during first hour of trading. A sharp rise was seen following buying in Attock Refinery, Treet Corporation, Sui Northern, United Bank, Bank of Punjab, Bank Alfalah and Kot Addu Power.
However, market could not sustain after reaching the day's peak level of 3354, as investors started offloading their holdings in blue chips like PSO, PPL, Pak Oil Fields, Byco Petroleum, MCB Bank, Fauji Fertiliser, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, Lucky Cement, and D.G. Khan Cement. Similarly, Arif Habib Securities, Javed Omer Vohra and Company also remained under pressure. Meanwhile, the market remained under the grip of bearish sentiments on account of lacking buying support.
The declining stocks were ahead of advancing ones, as of 114 active issues, 22 companies posted gains, 36 went down, while values of 56 companies remained unchanged at their overnight closing levels. Shell Pakistan gained Rs 3.54, Attock Refinery was appreciated by Rs 3.33, Treet Corporation was improved by Rs 2.49, while ICI Pakistan and Habib Bank were up by Rs 1.90 and Rs 1.34, respectively.
Millat Tractors lost Rs 12.50, Service Industries was declined by Rs 7.72, PSO was depreciated by Rs 4.28, while PPL and MCB Bank were down by Rs 3.17 and Rs 3.06, respectively. Bank of Punjab with trading of 2.388 million shares topped the volume leaders followed by Lotte Pakistan PTA with 958,125 shares.