Bullish sentiment continued for another day on the Lahore Stock Exchange on Thursday and the equities registered gains under the lead of oil and energy sector. The LSE-25 index was increased to 4640.63 against 4526.48 of Wednesday, showing a gain of 114.15 points while transaction volume was squeezed to 11.695 million shares compared with day earlier volume of 13.257 million shares.
The market was opened on a positive note and stayed in green zone throughout the day. Buying interest in the oil and energy shares like PSO, OGDC, Byco Petroleum, Pakgen Power, Southern Electric Power, Japan Power, and Sui Northern helped improve market sentiments while United Bank, Bank of Punjab, Bank of Punjab (R), NIB Bank, Silk Bank, Adamjee Insurance and Lucky Cement also performed well. However, because of profit-taking, MCB Bank, Bank Alfalah, Dawood Hercules Corporation, Akzo Nobel, Engro Foods, DG Khan Cement, Dewan Cement, Fauji Cement, Flying Cement and Dewan Salman Fibre suffered losses.
The gainers were more than the losers, as out of a total of 108 active issues, 49 companies posted gains, 14 stayed in negative zone, while 45 companies were ended without any change. PSO was improved by Rs 12, United Bank gained Rs 2.86, Lucky Cement was appreciated by Rs 2.04, while Tri Pack Films and Adamjee Insurance were up by Rs 1.9 and Rs 1.64, respectively.
MCB Bank lost Rs 6.84, Dawood Hercules Corporation was declined by 83-paisa while Akzo Nobel and DG Khan Cement were down by 35-paisa and 25-paisa, respectively. Bank of Punjab (R) with trading of 3.038 million shares topped the volume leaders while Bank of Punjab stayed as runner up with 1.120 million shares.