Dhaka stocks gain for fifth straight session

---

FE Report
Bulls dominated the Dhaka share trading for the fifth day in a row on Sunday, led by multinational companies, mutual funds, energy and pharmaceuticals stocks.
The market gained sharply in the first hour of the first and kept the momentum throughout the opening session of the week, with gainers outnumbering the losers.
The benchmark Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) General Index (DGEN) finished at 2941.01 with a gain of 0.90 per cent or 26.48 points.
The broader All Shares Price Index (DSI) closed at 2463.86 with a rise of 22.54 points while the DSE 20 blue chip index edged up 7.94 points to end at 2229.95. "Good half yearly corporate results and impressive interim dividend declarations by multinational companies allowed bullish rally to set in," said a top fund manager.
Gainers took the strong lead over the losers as out of 235 issues traded, 167 went into the green, 66 into the red and two remained unchanged.
The turnover slightly increased to stand at Tk 6.88 billion on the day, up by five per cent from the previous session's Tk 6.55 billion.
The United Kingdom-based personal care company Reckitt Benckiser Bangladesh gained the highest 31.04 per cent after it declared a record-setting interim dividend.
The board of directors recommended 500 per cent cash dividend for its shareholders for the year of 2009, the highest by a company in the country's capital markets' history.
Other multinational companies and traditional interim dividend companies like Bata Shoe also made similar gains amid expectations that it would also announce impressive dividend.
Almost all mutual funds gained with AIMS 1st mutual fund gained the biggest of 14.6 per cent in anticipation of hitting number of initial public offerings ( IPOs) in the market and immediate solution of mutual fund related case.
State-owned Rupali Bank notched up a big rise of 5.2 per cent, although most of the banks, the market's bellwether, bucked a three-day rally.
The IFIC bank lost the highest 2.5 per cent as the High Court has ordered a temporary halt on its 32nd annual general meeting (AGM), which was scheduled for Tuesday.