Equities maintained upward slide on the Lahore Stock Exchange and registered further gains amid increased trading turnover due to fresh buying interest on the part of investors.
The LSE-25 index rose to 3597.35 against 3549.94 of Wednesday, denoting an improvement of 47.41 points while transaction volume was considerably increased to 15.304 million shares compared with last day volume of 9.435 million shares.
While continuing the day earlier sentiments, the market was opened on a positive sign and stayed in green zone during the entire day's trading.
Cement sector played key role in keeping the market in bullish zone, as Lucky Cement, D G Khan Cement, Pioneer Cement, Maple Leaf Cement, Lafarge Pakistan Cement and Fauji Cement helped improvement market sentiments. Similarly, some blue chips like Pakistan Oil Fields, MCB Bank, Faysal Bank, National Bank, NIB Bank, Silk Bank, Engro Corporation, Arif Habib Corporation, Pak Electron, Japan Power and Lotte Pakistan also remained attractive for the investors.
However, PPL, OGDC, Adamjee Insurance, Fauji Fertiliser, Engro Foods, Habib Bank, Allied Bank, NetSol Technologies, Nimir Industrial Chemical, and Sui Southern suffered losses because of profit taking.
The gainers were more than the losers. Of 96 active issues, 45 companies stayed in positive zone, 14 landed in minus column, while 37 companies remained unchanged at their previous closing.
Pakistan Oilfields gained Rs 5.16, Lucky Cement was improved by Rs 2.55, MCB Bank was appreciated by Rs 1.76 while Engro Corporation and Arif Habib Corporation were up by Rs 1.37 and Rs 1.25 respectively.
PPL lost Rs 2.85, OGDC was declined by Rs 2.10, Adamjee Insurance shed Rs 1.12 while Fauji Fertiliser and Engro Foods were down by 81-paisa and 78-paisa respectively.
Lafarge Pakistan Cement with trading of 2.751 million shares topped the volume leaders followed by Fauji Cement with 2.295 million shares.