20000120Bulls stage comeback on LSE

Recorder Report

LAHORE: After a day's break, bulls again got hold of the driving seat on Wednesday and equities scored gains across the board while the index went up by 13.81 points amid rising volumes.

The market started showing bullishness at the outset when it resumed trading in the morning. Except the last 10 minutes before close when, following a rumour about another bomb blast in Karachi, it depicted a bit of weakness, the bull-run continued till the closing bell rang. And the bulls did not let the bears enter the ring at any stage throughout both the sessions.

Bulk of activity was seen in oil sector, particularly in PSO and Shell Pakistan. PSO moved within the range of Rs 220.50 and Rs 232.00 to finish at Rs 230.50, while Shell Pakistan closed at Rs 289.00 after touching its lowest and highest levels at Rs 285.00 and Rs 289.00 respectively.

Other popular chips such as Adamjee Insurance, Fauji Fertilizer, Engro Chemical, PTC and SNGPL also scored handsome gains and ended on a bullish note.

Dr. Shahid Zia of Zafar Securities said that the ongoing bullish spell was not speculation-based and in his view it would continue in the near future too.

He said that borrowing power of investors has increased after reduction in the mark-up rate. Besides, there was also phenomenal institutional support for the market, which had boosted the sentiments.

PSO led the rally, which was followed by others, especially the blue chips, and led to a gradual upward movement of the index, he added.

He said that normally when people sell their deliveries, the equity values plunged but this time contrary to practice, the selling spree gave a rise to the market and hence prompted the equity values buoyant.

He said that on Tuesday downtrend was just due to a technical correction and not a reversal of the on-going bullish spell.

In recent days, due to reduction in interest rate the market liquidity has risen which has helped boost market sentiments, said another trader, adding that the bullish spell was not over yet and was likely to continue during the running weak.

The LSE-101 share index surged by 13.81 points to close at 420.32 points as compared with 406.51 points of Tuesday. The turnover amounted to 101.866 million shares as against 93.239 million shares of the previous day, depicting an improvement of 8.627 million shares.

In all 149 traded scrips, 65 improved their worth, 17 landed in the negative column while the remaining 67 did not alter their earlier positions.

PSO topped the list of key gainers improving in value by Rs 5.50, Shell Pakistan was up by Rs 4.00, Adamjee Insurance Rs 1.90, Fauji Fertilizer Rs 1.65, Al-Faysal Bank Rs 1.45, Engro Chemical Rs 1.25 and PTC and SNGPL Rs 1.10 each.

In the losers column, Orix leasing dipped by Rs 2.00, Umer Fabrics 75 paisa, Crescent Textile Mills 50 paisa and PEL Appliances Limited shed 45 paisa.

PTCL continued leading the market in terms of volume with 71.655 million shares followed by ICI with 8.509 million and PSO with 4.323 million shares.