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LSE index 11.15 points up

RECORDER REPORT

LAHORE: The bullish trend continued to prevail on the Lahore Stock Exchange and equities showed significant across-the-board improvement amid descending transaction volume, here on Thursday.

The LSE index registered a gain of 11.15 points and closed at 478.70 against 467.55 of Wednesday, while total turnover declined to 99.454 million shares as compared to 106.340 million shares traded a day earlier.

The market opened on a bullish note and remained positive during the entire day. The buying spell continued in the financial, synthetic fibre, and fertilizer sector which helped them move upward.

The investors covered their positions at the overnight level for the new settlement period. It was the day of new settlement delivery period, therefore, leading shares came in for active support at the still attractively higher level and generally ended further higher.

According to Asif Rashid of First Capital ABN Amro, the 'Badla' rates declined significantly on Wednesday and Thursday was declared as the clearing day because of Eid. It was expected that the market would show upward trend on Thursday and the investors, who perceived the prevailing rates most suitable for investment, started to take fresh position, he added.

He said foreign buying in ICI Pak was seen again on Thursday, which provided substantial support to the market. However, because of imposition of regulatory duty on urea import, Engro Chemical continued to move up, he maintained.

Rashid added that majority of the investors were optimistic on US President Clinton visit to Pakistan and they perceived that Clinton could help in resolving the long pending Kashmir issue to ensure peace and stability in the region. He anticipated that market may gain further strength after Eid.

Advancing stocks were far ahead of declining ones. Out of a total of 150 companies, 46 improved their values, 24 went down, while 80 companies stayed glued to their previous levels.

Among the gainers, PSO improved by Rs 8.0, Al-Mal Securities gained Rs 4.0, Dewan Salman and Muslim Commercial Bank were up by Rs 1.57 and Rs 1.37.

Lever Brothers declined by Rs 5.50, Shell Pak lost by Rs 3.0, Adamjee Insurance and Ghandara Nissan were down by Rs 2.32 and Rs 1.0, respectively.

The PTC was the market leader, whose 25.361 million shares changed hands, followed by FFC-Jordan and ICI Pak with a total transaction of 16.760 and 16.314 million shares, respectively.