Bearish sentiments dominated on the Lahore Stock Exchange on Monday and the equities registered declines across the board amid marginally decreased trading turnover. The LSE-25 index was plunged by 53.77 points to close at 4209.07 against 4262.84 of last Friday while trading turnover was declined to 1.725 million shares compared with previous volume of 1.802 million shares.
The market was opened on a negative sign and sharply declined due to lacking interest on the part of investors. Later, the market remained range-bound till close of trading. Most of the bluechips and ready board shares like Engro Corporation, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, Engro Foods, D G Khan Cement, Pioneer Cement, Maple Leaf Cement, Lafarge Pakistan Cement, PTCL, Nimir Industrial Chemicals, Sui Northern, PIA, Faysal Bank and Bank of Punjab suffered losses whereas only two companies including National Bank and Wateen Telecom stayed in positive zone with marginal gain. The losers were considerably more than the gainers. Of 84 active issues, two companies posted gains, 27 suffered declines, while 55 companies were ended at their previous closing.
National Bank was improved by 64-paisa, Wateen Telecom gained one-paisa, whereas Engro Corporation lost Rs 5.03, D.G. Khan Cement was declined by Rs 2.55, while Engro Foods shed Rs 2.05. Fauji Cement with trading of 346,500 shares topped the volume leaders followed by Lafarge Pakistan with 282,500 shares.