Equities on Monday moved both ways on the Lahore Stock Exchange and finally ended in negative zone amid decreased trading turnover because of the investors' cautious approach ahead of long break on account of Eid-ul-Fitr. The LSE-28 index lost 3.68 points and was ended at 5452.85 against 5456.53 of last Thursday while transaction volume was restricted to 985,400 shares compared with previous volume of 1.525 million shares.
The market was opened on mixed note and kept on moving up and down throughout the day's trading. Because volatile situation, the investors adopted cautious approach in taking positions and remained on the sideline that resulted in sluggish trading trend. Sui Northern, Byco Petroleum, Engro Fertiliser, World Call Telecom, NIB Bank and Cherat Cement witnessed buying and thus ended in green zone. However, Fauji Fertiliser, Gul Ahmed Textile Mills, DG Khan Cement, Lafarge Pakistan Cement, Gharibwal Cement, Maple Leaf Cement, PPL, Hascol Petroleum, Pak Elektron and Adamjee Insurance remained under selling pressure.
The losers were more than the gainers, as out of a total of 69 active issues, eight companies posted gains, 14 suffered losses, while 47 companies stayed glued to their previous closing. Sui Northern gained 62-paisa, Byco Petroleum was improved by 34-paisa while Engro Fertiliser was up by 13-paisa. In the minus column, Fauji Fertiliser lost Rs 1.35, Gul Ahmed Textile Mills was declined by Rs 1.13 while DG Khan Cement was down by Re 1. Lafarge Pakistan Cement with trading of 338,000 shares topped the volume leaders followed by NIB Bank with 154,000 shares.