Bearish sentiments dominated on the Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) on Thursday and the equities registered declines across the board amid selling pressure mainly because of profit taking blue chips including oil and banking sectors' shares.
The LSE-25 index nose dived to 3835.60 points against 3936.12 points of Wednesday, denoting a decline of 100.52 points, while transaction volume was also improved to 8.145 million shares, as compared to 7.474 million shares traded a day earlier.
The market opened on a depressed note and soon after resumption of trading started declining. The market did not find any support at any level, as the investors offloaded their holdings to pocket the available margin. As a result, most of the blue chips including MCB Bank, Allied Bank, National Bank, Silk Bank, Pakistan Oil Fields, Attock Refinery, PSO and PPL remained under pressure and were closed in negative column.
Similarly, Nishat Mills, Fauji Fertiliser, Lotte Pakistan PTA, Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim, Arif Habib Corporation, D.G. Khan Cement and Nishat Power also suffered losses. However, Pakistan Refinery, Pakistan Reinsurance, Adamjee Insurance, Fatima Fertiliser, Pervez Ahmed Securities, resisted selling pressure and were closed in positive zone.
According to the market pundits, the market was persistently moving up for the last couple of days and thus technical correction because of the profit taking had become due that appeared on Thursday. The market, in the backdrop of corporate announcement, is expected to witness bullish rallies in coming days.
The losers were more than the gainers, as out of a total of 122 active companies, 9 posted gains, 54 registered losses, while values of 59 companies remained unchanged at their overnight closing levels.
Among gainers, Pakistan Refinery was improved by Rs 5.53, Pakistan Reinsurance gained 34-paisa, while Pioneer Cement and Fatima Fertiliser were marginally up by 06-paisa each. However, Millat Tractor lost Rs 14.56, MCB Bank was declined by Rs 6.79, Pakistan Oil Fields was depreciated by Rs 5.35, while Attock Refinery and PSO were down by Rs 5.31 and Rs 4.95, respectively. Lotte Pakistan PTA was the market leader whose 3.179 million shares changed hands followed by Bank of Punjab with trading of 1.409 million shares.