The news regarding operation against Lal Masjid students in Islamabad on Tuesday turned the bullish trend into bearish at Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) where equities registered declines across the board amid selling pressure, and investors remained on the sidelines.
The LSE-25 index lost 53.50 points, closing at 4858.82 points against 4912.32 points of Monday. The transaction volume declined to 56.631 million shares against 61.902 million shares traded a day earlier.
Arif Habib Securities, Picic Commercial Bank, Attock Refinery and Nishat Mills provided support to the market, but selling pressure in Javed Omer Vohra and Co and Adamjee Insurance led the market into the red zone.
The market opened on a healthy note but could not sustain due to the news on private television channels regarding operation against Lal Masjid students in Islamabad. As soon as the news appeared, a panic-like situation was created in all brokerage houses and investors started offloading their holdings to secure their positions.
However, some experts were of the view that the investors got out of the market for profit taking, particularly in D G Khan Cement, Lucky Cement, Maple Leaf Cement, Bank Alfalah, Pakistan PTA and Dewan Salman Fibre which closed in the negative zone.
Market pundits said that SCRAs remained intact at the pervious level, thereby meaning that there was no foreign selling, and only local investors offloaded their positions. However, the market scenario was unclear and situation might clear on Wednesday. Market future depends more on the outcomes of the law enforcing agencies' action against Lal Masjid students, they said.
Declining stocks were ahead of advancing ones, as out of a total of 124 active issues, 17 companies registered gains, 48 went down, while 59 stayed glued to their previous level. Among gainers, Arif Habib Securities improved by Rs 4.50, Picic Commercial Bank appreciated by Rs 2.30, Attock Refinery moved up by Rs 1.85 while Faysal Bank and PSO were up by Rs 1.50 and Rs 1.35, respectively.
In the minus column, Javed Omer Vohra and Co lost Rs 12.50, Adamjee Insurance declined by Rs 10.00, Pak Oil Field depreciated by Rs 5.00, PPL moved down by Rs 4.80 while United Bank and Engro Chemical were down by Rs 4.55 and Rs 3.90 respectively. Bosicor Pakistan was the market leader with 5.936 million shares changing hands, followed by Arif Habib Securities with 5.013 million shares.