Equities on Wednesday moved both ways on Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) and finally ended with marginal gains amid decreased trading turnover. The LSE-25 index was improved by 8.49 points and was closed at 3137.23 against 3128.74 of Tuesday while transaction volume was squeezed to 3.404 million shares compared with previous volume of 4.472 million shares.
The market was opened on positive sign and sharply moved up to gain over 20 points. However, market could not sustain because of volatility and kept on moving within short range throughout the day. The fertiliser and oil companies like Fauji Fertiliser, Engro Corporation, PPL, OGDC, Attock Refinery, Pakistan Oil Fields helped market closure in green zone while Lotte Pakistan PTA, Hira Textile Mills, Dewan Salman Fibre, Nimir Industrial Chemical and National Bank also supported the market sentiments.
Just ahead of closing of trading, the investors started offloading of their holdings to pocket the available margin. As a result, banking sector's shares including MCB Bank, Habib Bank, Faysal Bank, Silk Bank and Bank of Punjab remained under pressure while Arif Habib Corporation, Pakistan Reinsurance, Nishat Mills, Fatima Fertiliser, Hub Power and Byco Petroleum also ended with losses.
The gainers were more than the losers, as out of a total of 108 active issues, 27 companies posted gains, 20 stayed in negative column, while values of 61 companies remained unchanged at their previous closing. Fauji Fertiliser gained Rs 3.09, Engro Corporation was improved by Rs 1.55 while Lucky Cement and PPL were up by Rs 1.21 and Rs 0.86 respectively.
Habib Bank lost 72-paisa, MCB Bank was declined by 70-paisa while Arif Habib Corporation and Javed Omer Vohra and Company were down by 30-paisa and 24-paisa respectively. Lotte Pakistan PTA topped the volume leaders with 1.179 million shares while Dewan Salman Fibre stayed as runner up with 331,240 shares.