Bearish sentiments continued to prevail for the second consecutive day on the Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) on Friday and the equities registered declines amid slightly increased trading turnover. The LSE-25 index was marginally declined by 2.04 points and was ended at 3187.46 against 3189.50 of Thursday while transaction volume was increased to 1.958 million shares as compared to last day volume of 1.661 million shares.
The market was opened on a depressed note and stayed in negative zone due to lacking investors' interest who avoided taking positions ahead of weekend. Oil and energy sector witnessed profit taking due to which PSO, Attock Refinery, Byco Petroleum and Kot Addu Power closed with losses. Similarly, Adamjee Insurance, D G Khan Cement, Lucky Cement, Nishat Mills, Fauji Fertiliser, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim also remained under pressure.
However, MCB Bank, Habib Bank, National Bank, Bank Al-Habib, Azam Textile Mills, Fatima Fertiliser, PTCL, Pcici Growth Fund and Japan Power were closed in green zone. The declining stocks were ahead of the advancing ones, as out of a total of 95 active issues, 13 companies posted gains, 23 landed in minus column while 59 companies stayed glued to their previous levels.
MCB Bank gained Rs 2.92, Habib Bank was improved by Rs 2.49 while National Bank and Azam Textile Mills were up by 67-paisa and 57-paisa respectively. PSO was declined by Rs 10.36, Attock Refinery lost Rs 2.67, Adamjee Insurance was depreciated by Rs 1.47 while Kot Addu Power and DG Khan Cement were down by 65-paisa and 52-paisa respectively. Fauji Cement with trading of 490,192 shares topped the volume leaders followed by Bank of Punjab with 208,532 shares.