LAHORE, Dec 20: Lahore Stock Exchange launched its new index on Friday which would be known as LSE-25 Index and will replace the LSE-101 Index.

The 101 Index, while it covered a larger part of the market capitalization, consisted of a lot of illiquid companies, which do not trade actively.

The intention behind creating a new index was to capture a significant amount of the trading volume in the market, said a spokesman of LSE.

He said LSE-25 will be more representative of the ‘tradable’ and ‘investable’ market. The 25 companies selected for the index are the 25 most traded companies at LSE in the period July 2001- June 2002.

The index has a base figure of 1,000 as on January 1, 2002. The opening figure for December 20, was 1645.30. This is the first in the series of new indices that will be launched by LSE, added the spokesman.

The 25 companies are: Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Ltd, Hub Power Company Ltd, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd, Fauji Jordan Fertilizer Company Ltd, D.G. Khan Cement Company Ltd, Bank of Punjab, Dewan Salman Fibres Ltd, Karachi Electric Supply Company Ltd, Nishat Mills, Muslim Commercial Bank Ltd, Japan Power Generation Ltd, ICI (Pakistan) Ltd, National Bank of Punjab Ltd, Engro Chemical Pakistan Ltd, Adamjee Insurance Company Ltd, Worldcall Communications, Fauji Fertilizer Corporation Ltd, Lucky Cement Ltd, Nishat (Chunian) Ltd, Maple Leaf Cement Company Ltd, Southern Electric Power Company Ltd, Chakwal Cement Company Ltd, Pioneer Cement Ltd and Pakistan PTA Ltd.

Meanwhile under the new LSE Index-25, share values plunged further to close for the week down by 12.19 points. The index closed at 1633.11 compared to opening figure of 1645.30.

Of the 96 scrips traded, 15 were up, 19 were down while 62 remained equal.—APP