Share prices retreated and the market finished with 0.6 percent loss as profit-taking set in on second last session of the week, after past two days' surge. The LSE-25 index was registered at 4,788.01 points as compared to 4,819.96 points of the previous session, showing a net fall of 31.95 points.
Volume slipped back to 57.405 million shares from 59.895 million, depicting decrease of 2.489 million shares. The market moved under pressure as people took to profit taking, which led the index to downward direction. According to analysts, pressure might persist on last trading day of the week too, but the market could again stage come back some time in the next week as there was no negative factor to keep it under pressure for a longer period.
ICI and Engro Chemical maintained buoyancy and added fresh gains to their worth while insurance and banking sectors were hard-hit scrips by the selling pressure. A number of key scrips were capped at their high limits because of their overvalued position, soon after opening of trading, Umair Butt of Dosslani Securities Ltd said. According to him, cements and banks were overvalued, and that is why were the major victim of profit-taking.
However, oil and gas sector was still undervalued and had a lot of room for upward movement, he viewed. At present, oil sector's PE is not more than 8-9 while it should be between the range of 13-14 when compared with cements and banks' which stood at 17, he pointed out. If recovery takes place on Monday then the market is expected to go beyond 13,600 level otherwise people should be prepared for major falls, he observed.
Out of a total of 138 traded scrips, 17 were up, 47 landed in minus column while 74 were intact to their previous levels. Among major gainers, ICI was up Rs 3.90, Engro Chemical was up Rs 2.35, BAHL Rs 2.30, HMB Rs 1.50 and FFBL 1.35. In negative zone, Adamjee Insurance declined by Rs 16.25, MCB Bank Rs 3.40, POL Rs 3.40, Javed Omer Vohra & Co Rs 3.10 and PPL Rs 2.85. FFBL was the volume leader with 6.476 million shares followed by BAFL with 5.964 million shares.
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