Bullish sentiments dominated for the third consecutive day on the Lahore Stock Exchange and the equities registered handsome gains amid significantly improved trading turnover. The LSE-25 index was jumped to 5353.32 against 5211.23 of Wednesday, denoting a gain of 142.09 points, while transaction volume was tremendously improved to 11.651 million shares compared with day earlier volume of 2.940 million shares.
The market was opened on a positive sign and stayed in green zone throughout the day. The investors made entries in bluechips and ready board shares, particularly in banking, cement and oil sector shares. As a result, PSO, Pakistan Refinery, PPL, Engro Corporation, IGI Insurance, Ghani Glass, Tariq Glass, Nishat Mills, MCB Bank, National Bank, Summit Bank, Silk Bank, NIB Bank, Faysal Bank, Lafarge Pakistan Cement and Fauji Cement were ended with healthy gains. However, selling pressure because of profit taking was also seen in Engro Foods, Gul Ahmed Textile Mills, Pioneer Cement, Engro Fertiliser, Nishat Chunian, Brothers Textile Mills, PIA, Dewan Farooq Motors and Bank of Punjab. The advancing stocks were ahead of the declining ones, as out of a total of 102 active issues, 47 companies posted gains, 9 stayed in negative zone while 46 companies remained unchanged at their overnight closing.
PSO gained Rs 11.30, Pakistan Refinery was improved by Rs 6.70, Engro Corporation was appreciated by Rs 4.00 while PPL, IGI Insurance and Ghani Glass were up by Rs 3.64, Rs 2.87 and Rs 2.84, respectively. Engro Foods lost Rs 1.40, Gul Ahmed Textile Mills was declined by 93-pasia while Pioneer Cement and Engro Fertiliser were down by 33-paisa and 20-paisa, respectively. Summit Bank was the market leader whose 3.570 million shares changed hands followed by Silk Bank with 2.406 million shares.