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Bullish trend continues on LSE

RECORDER REPORT

LAHORE: Last week's bullish trend continued on Lahore Stock Exchange on Monday and the equities maintained the upward trend amid massive across-the-board buying.

The LSE index registered a gain of 4.35 points and closed at 430.67 against 426.32 of last Friday. The volume increased to 104.372 million shares, against 101.516 million shares traded on last Friday.

The market opened on a bullish note, and the positive sentiment continued during the day, though not much activity was seen during the first half an hour. However, things started to move following across-the-board buying pressure.

According to Asif Rashid, of First Capital ABN Amro, fresh buying in active scrips provided substantial support to the market.

While the market was having smooth sailing, a rumour spread in all brokerage houses that President Rafiq Tarrar had been forced to step down. This created a panic in the stock market, resulting in selling pressure, and the small investors started off-loading their stocks at the available margin, he said.

Asif said that another factor which might have created selling pressure was Engro Chemical's announcement to award 20 percent cash dividend to its shareholders. The announcement disappointed the investors who preferred to off-load their holdings instead of blocking their investment for the marginal benefit, he added.

The advancing stocks were far ahead of the declining ones. Out of a total of 174 companies, 60 improved their value, 30 went down while 83 stayed glued to their previous levels.

Amongst the gainers, Millat Tractors showed an improvement of Rs 2.95, Nishat Chunian gained Rs 2.25, while Kohinoor Energy and BOC Pakistan were up by Rs 1.90 and Rs 1.80, respectively.

In the minus column, Engro Chemical lost Rs 8.60, Kohinoor Raiwind Mills declined by Rs 1.65 and Shell Pak was down by Rs 1.50.

PTC was the market leader, with 351.830 million shares traded, followed by Fauji Fertilizer Company with 2.501 million shares.