Equities on Wednesday moved both ways on the Lahore Stock Exchange and finally ended in positive zone amid descending transaction volume on account of the investors' cautious behaviour due to volatile situation that continued throughout the day.
The LSE-25 index was marginally declined by 4.62 points and was closed at 4244.50 against 4249.12 of Tuesday, while trading turnover was squeezed to 2.999 million shares as compared to last day volume of 3.05 million shares. The market was opened on healthy sign and stayed in green zone during early hour of trading. Later, the market witnessed up and downward moves that forced the investors to adopt cautious approach that resulted in low trading volume.
Buying in blue ships like PPL, PSO, Attock Refinery, Dawood Hercules Corporation, Fatima Fertiliser, Dandot Cement, Lucky Cement, DG Khan Cement, Indus Motors, Hira Textile, Pakistan Reinsurance, National Bank, NIB Bank, Bank of Punjab, Silk Bank, PTCL, Engro Polymer and Chemical helped market sentiments. However, profit taking was seen in fertiliser companies including Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, Engro Corporation and Fauji Fertiliser while Engro Foods, Nishat Mills, Pak Electron, KESC, PIAC and Arif Habib Corporation also remained under pressure.
The gainers were more than the losers. Of 100 active companies, 25 registered gains, 17 stayed in negative zone while 58 companies were closed at their previous closing. PPL gained Rs 3.8, PSO was improved by Rs 2.3, Dawood Hercules Corporation was appreciated by Rs 1.9, while Dandot Cement and Indus Motors were up by Re 1 each.
Nishat Mills lost Rs 1.55, Fauji Fertiliser was declined by 59-paisa while Engro Foods and DG Khan Cement were down by 48-paisa and 42-paisa respectively. NIB Bank with trading of 975,000 shares topped the volume leaders followed by Bank of Punjab with 366,000 shares.