LSE index down 149.33 points

Equities on Friday registered further declines amid bearish sentiments dominated on the Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) on account of selling pressure in all the blue chips, as investors preferred getting out of the market ahead of weekend. The LSE-25 index was slide down to 2762.06 points against 2911.39 points of Thursday, denoting a fall of 149.33 points, while transaction volume was increased to 3.377 million shares compared with last day turnover of 1.632 million shares.
While continuing day earlier sentiments, the market was opened on a negative sign and stayed in red zone throughout the day. Market did not find any support at any level, as investors kept on selling their shares to avoid further losses that resulted in selling pressure in the market.
Almost all the blue chips including Pakistan Oil Fields, OGDC, Attock Refinery, PPL and Byco Petroleum of the oil sector, Egnro Corporation, Fauji Fertiliser, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim and Fatima Fertiliser of the fertiliser group registered visible declines. Similarly, banking shares like MCB Bank, National Bank, Habib Bank, United Bank, Bank of Punjab, Silk Bank also failed to perform positively. Lotte Pakistan PTA, Lafarge Pakistan Cement and Nimir Industrial Chemical also remained under pressure. Only two companies; Flying Cement and Adamjee Insurance resisted selling pressure and ended with marginal gain.
The losers were significantly more than the gainers, as out of a total of 92 active issues, 2 companies posted gains, 53 registered losses, while values of 37 companies remained unchanged at their day earlier closing. Flying Cement gained 98-paisa and Adamjee Insurance was improved by 44-paisa. On the contrary, Pakistan Oil Fields lost Rs 10.00, MCB Bank was declined by Rs 9.17, OGDC was depreciated by Rs 7.32, Engro Corporation shed Rs 6.18, while Attock Refinery and PPL were down by Rs 5.93 and Rs 5.25, respectively. Bank of Punjab topped the volume leaders with trading of 761,268 shares followed by Silk Bank with 400,786 shares.