Bearish sentiments dominated on Lahore Stock Exchange on Monday and the equities registered declines amid ascending transaction volume on account of selling pressure in most of the potential shares. The LSE-25 index was declined by 67.6 points and was closed at 3912.65 against 3980.25 of last Friday while trading turnover was increased to 4.294 million shares compared with previous volume of 2.651 million shares.
The market was opened on a depressed note and stayed in negative zone throughout the day due to lacking buying interest on the part of investors. As a result, most of the bluechips except banking companies remained under pressure. The banking shares like United Bank, Habib Bank, Bank Alfalah, National Bank, Askari Bank, Bank of Punjab and NIB Bank resisted pressure and were ended with gains while Attock Refinery, NetSol Technologies and PTCL also performed well.
Selling pressure was seen in OGDC, PSO, PPL, Nishat Mills, Fauji Fertiliser, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, Engro Corporation, Adamjee Insurance, Sui Northern, DG Khan Cement, KESC, Fauji Cement and Lafarge Pakistan Cement were closed with losses.
The losers were more than the gainers, as out of a total of 98 active issues, 19 companies posted gains, 30 went down, while 49 companies remained unchanged at their previous closing. Among gainers, United Bank was improved by Rs 3.12, Attock Refinery was appreciated by Rs 1.50, Habib Bank gained Rs 1.26 while NetSol Technologies and Tariq Glass Industries were up by 72-paisa and 65-paisa, respectively.
In the negative column, OGDC was declined by Rs 3.07, Nishat Mills lost Rs 2.84, PSO was depreciated by Rs 2.57, while Fauji Fertiliser and Adamjee Insurance were down by Rs 2.07 and Rs 1.50, respectively. KESC with trading of 1.551 million shares topped the volume leaders followed by Nimir Industrial Chemical with 790,000 shares.