Bearish sentiments dominated on the Lahore Stock Exchange on Monday and the equities registered losses across the board amid improved trading turnover. The LSE-25 index was decreased to 4856.53 against 4987.18 of last Friday, showing a fall of 130.65 points while transaction volume was improved to 4.212 million shares compared with previous volume of 3.036 million shares.
The market was opened on a depressed note and remained under pressure throughout the day. The market did not find any support due to lacking buying interest on the part of investors. Only a few companies including Dawood Hercules Corporation, Kohinoor Sugar Mills, KASB Bank, Invest Capital Investment Bank and NIB Bank resisted pressure and were ended with insignificant gain.
On the contrary, not only the bluechips but also ready board shares remained under selling pressure. PSO, Attock Refinery, PPL, Byco Petroleum, Exide Pakistan, MCB Bank, Habib Bank, Engro Corporation, Engro Foods, Packages Limited and Kohat Cement suffered handsome losses.
The losers were considerably more than the gainers, as out of a total of 88 active issues, six companies posted gains, 43 suffered losses while 39 companies stayed glued to their previous closing. Among gainers, Dawood Hercules Corporation gained Rs 2.27 while Kohinoor Sugar Mills was improved by Rs 1.00. In the minus column, PSO lost Rs 16.25, Attock Refinery shed Rs 13.04, Excide Pakistan Rs 13.00, MCB Bank was depreciated by Rs 9.38 while Habib Bank, Engro Corporation, Engro Foods and Packages Limited were down by Rs 8.58, Rs 7.74, Rs 6.67 and Rs 6.42, respectively. Bank of Punjab with trading of 792,500 shares topped the volume leaders followed by Lafarge Pakistan Cement with 727,500 shares.