Stocks break two-day losing streak

Stocks broke a two-day losing streak Wednesday, as investors bet on financial institutions, power and engineering shares.

DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 17.76 points or 0.32 per cent to settle at 5,429, after losing 111 points in the past two straight sessions.

The broad index witnessed booming trend from the very beginning of the day and eventually reached peak at 5,460, gaining 49 points within first hour of trading before ending marginally higher.

Market insiders said the optimistic investors showed their buying appetite on sector specific stocks riding on Bangladesh Bank's latest directive to the non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs).

The central bank Tuesday directed the NBFIs to refrain from sending short message service (SMS) through mobile phone, offering high interest rate, to collect deposit.

The private commercial banks will also slash the deposit and lending rates to single digit from July 1.

"The central bank's latest directive gave some comfort to the stock investors as it would help to increase fund flow in the capital market some extent," said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm, requesting anonymity.

He noted that June-closing earnings and dividend declaration expectation also attracted some investors.

Two other indices of the DSE also edged up. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 2.88 points to settle at 1968 and the DSE Shariah index rose 6.28 points to close at 1,266.

"This upward trend in the market is mainly driven by positive movement in all major sectors except banking and telecommunication," said LankaBangla Securities.

Turnover, another important indicator of the market, also rose to Tk 7.03 billion, which was 10 per cent higher than the previous day's turnover of Tk 6.39 billion.

International Leasing Securities said, the opportunistic investors took position on sector specific stocks, especially on the financial institution, textile, fuel & power and pharmaceutical sectors stocks while some sold telecom and banking stocks.

Among the major sectors, financial institutions posted the highest gain of 3.50 per cent, followed by fuel & power with 0.80 per cent, engineering 0.60 per cent, pharmaceuticals 0.50 per cent and food & allied 0.50 per cent.

Telecommunication and banking sector lost 0.70 per cent and 0.30 per cent respectively.

Of the traded issues, 191 closed higher, 107 closed lower and 41 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.

Monno Ceramic Industries was the most traded stocks on the DSE turnover chart with shares worth Tk 253 million changing hands, closely followed by Ratanpur Steels, Alif Industries, Square Pharmaceuticals and Queen South Textile.

Orion Infusion was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 10 per cent while the SEML Lecture Equity Management Fund was the worst loser, losing 8.33 per cent.

The port city's bourse, CSE, also closed higher with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI- advancing 66 points to settle at 16,693.

CSCX, the Selective Categories Index of the CSE, also gained 39 points to finish at 10,092.

The gainers beat the losers as 150 issues closed higher, 68 ended lower and 32 issues remained unchanged on the CSE.

The port city's bourse traded 7.43 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 414 million in turnover.

Meanwhile, trading on bourses will remain closed on Sunday (July 1) due to Bank Holiday.

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