Rangebound activity on LSE

Range-bound activity prevailed on Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE), as most of key players did not show any interest in a lack-luster market without knowing the fate of the recommendations prepared by the 17-member Shaukat Tarin Committee. The LSE-25 index came down slightly to 3568.20 points from previous day's level of 3572.89, registering only a fractional decline of 4.69 points.
Volume, however, was little up at 18.887 million shares as compared to 17.429 million of the previous session, registering improvement of 1.457 million shares.
The market moved both ways depicting a range-bound activity that was caused by lack of interest from the key players, stock analysts said. Lacklustre activity has also resulted in liquidity problem, which has concerned investors, and their worries about future of the stock market are growing, a broker said. According to him, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP)'s decision on the badla issue will have far reaching impact in the market, whether positive or negative.
Now all the key investors and players are absent from the market awaiting the government decision on future of badla, he added. Fauji Fertilisers Thursday improved on the back of its corporate results, while PSO results failed to have any impact, as it stayed depressed, besides UBL and PPL.
The market was positive in first half of the session, in anticipation of PSO results, while in the second half it landed in the negative zone to finally finish with a depressed note, said Mirza Muhammad Irfan, equity research head of Capital Vision Securities Ltd People were expecting extra-ordinary results of PSO due to which buying was seen in the early hours of trading.
The company declared Rs 10/- dividend, which probably did not match with the expectations of the people due to which its share started weakening in the last hours of trading. He further said that activity was very low, as majority of people continued to be sidelined till the government takes a final decision on the badla issue.
He said that the Shaukat Tarin Committee is expected to place its recommendations before Dr Salman Shah, Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance and Economic Affairs on Friday (July 29). If any breakthrough is achieved and both sides are agreed on a formula acceptable to all the stakeholders, the market will come to life on Monday, otherwise volume will further come down that will add to liquidity problem, which the market faces severely these days, following non-availability of badla financing.
According to Irfan, major concern of the market people is that during last couple of weeks, every positive decision of the government regarding the market was followed by a conflicting move on part of the SECP that badly shattered investors' confidence. This is the reason people are scared.
Out of a total of 87 traded scrips, 11 were up, 32 landed in negative column, while 44 stayed unchanged. Among key gainers, Fauji Fertiliser Company was up Rs 1.95, Askari Leasing Rs 0.90, Worldcall Communications Rs 0.85, OGDC Rs 0.35 and Bank of Punjab Rs 0.30. In minus column, PSO declined by Rs 5.90, UBL Rs 3.10, PPL Rs 2.90, Pakistan Industrial Credit and Askari Commercial Bank Rs 2.30 and Rs 1.60, respectively.
PTCL was the volume leader with 4.258 million shares followed by PPL with 3.198 million shares turnover.