LSE: Losers outclassed gainers with wide margin
Posted on April 26, 2009
LAHORE: Bears remained in the driving seat at the Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) where losers outclassed gainers with wide margin under the lead of favourite scrips amid descending transaction volume on Thursday. The LSE-25 index further declined to 2117.90 against 2204.52 of Wednesday, depicting a fall of 86.62 points.
While trading volume further squeezed to 21.232 million shares as compared to day earlier volume of 27.290 million shares. The banking shares like MCB Bank Limited, Habib Bank and National Bank remained under selling pressure while PSO, PPL, Packages Limited, Attock Refinery Limited, Engro Chemical, Pak Oil Fields and Adamjee Insurance also closed in red zone.
However, Pakistan Tobacco Company, FFC, the Royal Bank of Scotland, ICI Pakistan and Southern Electric Power resisted declines and stayed in positive zone. Commenting on the market sentiments, Chief Executive of ABM Securities (Pvt) Limited, Asif Baig Mirza, said the market was passing through correction phase in the absence of any positive news on economic and political fronts.
He said internal and external threats confronted to the country were forcing the investors to stay away from buying spree and they had adopted the policy of wait and see. He, however, said current levels are attractive from investors point of view and those who believe in long-term investment must come forward and make investment to fetch profits in future.
According to market players, the market, which opened on a negative note, remained in red zone during the entire day’s trading. Soon after the start of trading, the market was hit by panic selling, as the investors put their holdings on sale to secure their positions. The current law and order situation in NWFP and Balochistan areas, negative signals from abroad and absence of positive news on economic fronts are leaving negative effects on the country’s bourses, a broker said.
Of 128 companies, only 9 showed strength, 66 landed in negative column, while values of 53 companies remained unchanged at their previous levels. Among gainers, Pakistan Tobacco Company, FFC, the Royal Bank of Scotland, ICI Pakistan and Southern Electric Power were up by Rs 3.60, Rs 1.56, Re 1.00, Rs 0.42 and Rs 0.15, respectively.
On the contrary, PSO was declined by Rs 10.59, MCB Bank lost Rs 9.33, PPL shed Rs 9.26, Packages Limited was depreciated by Rs 8.70 while Attock Refinery, Engro Chemical and Pak Oil Fields were down by Rs 6.86, Rs 6.83 and Rs 6.67, respectively. NIB Bank Limited was the market leader whose 2.433 million shares changed hands.
