20000203

Bulls stage comeback on LSE

RECORDER REPORT

LAHORE: After a day's break, bulls staged a comeback on the Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) on Wednesday under the lead of core issues, while the index was up by 8.40 points amid increasing volumes.

The opening of the market was not much encouraging, and during the first 30 minutes the market players witnessed a dull activity in almost all the popular chips. However, in the second half of the opening session the market started improving gradually and the trend continued till the close. When the first half of the closing session started, bulls got complete hold of the driving seat.

According to market analysts, the activity was not confined to any particular field but was equally participated by all sectors and the equities continued to surge across the board. However, bulk of the activity remained confined to PTCL, Engro Chemical and Dhan Fibre etc. The bullish spell may continue on Thursday predicted the market pundits.

The market continued to surge throughout the day with the exception of the first half of the opening session when it showed a bit weakness, said Asif Rashid of First Capital ABN Amro. However, he said that institutional buying was not visible while the leading support came from the individual investors, who utilised their funds by acquiring favourite scrips.

If nothing untoward happens on the political or economic horizon, the market is expected to keep bullish trend during the week, said another expert.

The LSE 101-share index rose by 8.40 points to close at 436.86 points as against 428.46 points of the previous day. The trade volume amounted to 56.061 million shares as compared to 39.136 million shares of Tuesday, registering an increase of 17.724 million shares.

Overall, there were 56 gainers against 19 losers, while 101 stuck to their earlier levels out of a total of 176 scrips traded during the day.

Among the major gainers, Nestle Milk Pak was up by Rs 7.00, Engro Chemical Rs 4, Tri-pack Films Rs 3.20, Dewan Salman Fibres Rs 1.90, Adamjee Insurance Rs 1.70, Ibrahim Fibres Limited Rs 1.65 and PSO rose by Rs 1.55.

In the minus column, Din Textile Mills lost its worth by 85 paisa, Kohinoor Weaving Mills 50 paisa, Nishat (Chunian) Limited 35 paisa and Kohinoor Energy was down by 25 paisa.

PTCL maintained its lead in terms of turnover with 39.910 million shares followed by ICI with 3.931 million and Dhan Fibres with 1.619 million shares.