Equities on Tuesday maintained downward slide on the Lahore Stock Exchange and suffered losses amid marginally improved trading turnover. The LSE-25 index was further declined by 35.06 points and was closed at 4022.20 against 4057.26 of Monday while transaction volume was increased to 2.580 million shares compared with last day volume of 2.054 million shares.
The market was opened on a healthy sign and stayed in positive zone for a couple of hours. The sentiments could not remain intact, as investors started offloading of their holdings to secure their positions. As a result, most of the bluechips including Attock Refinery, PSO, PPL, Byco Petroleum, Engro foods, Engro Corporation, Fatima Fertiliser, Akzo Noble Pakistan, Nishat Mills, NetSol Technologies, Arif Habib Corporation, Lafarge Pakistan Cement, Maple Leaf Cement and Pak Elektron remained under pressure. However, PIAC, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, Fauji Fertiliser, Engro Polymer and Chemical, National Bank and IGI Investment Bank resisted pressure and registered marginal gains.
The declining stocks were ahead of the advancing ones, as out of a total of 92 active issues, 8 companies posted gains, 37 registered losses while 47 companies stayed glued to their previous closing. Among gainers, PIAC was improved by 57-paisa, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim gained 50-paisa while National Bank and Fauji Fertiliser were up by 41-paisa and 21-paisa, respectively.
In the minus column, Attock Refinery lost Rs 9.70, PSO was declined by Rs 8.59, Engro Foods was depreciated by Rs 3.72 while Engro Corporation and PPL were down by Rs 2.69 and Rs 2.50, respectively. PIAC topped the volume leaders with trading of 536,000 shares followed by Lafarge Pakistan Cement with 353,500 shares.