DSE posts marginal gains, CSE ends in red

Stocks in the country's main bourse, Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), posted marginal gains Sunday amid choppy trading, as the investors rebalanced their portfolio ahead of the third quarter earnings declaration.
DSEX, the benchmark index of the DSE, went up by 8.15 points or 0.17 per cent to settle at 4,768.30, after witnessing modest volatility almost throughout the trading session.
 "Stocks ended moderate gain, although buying interest has been somewhat subdued, leading to choppy trading," stated LankaBangla Securities, a stockbroker, in an analysis.
Some heavy weighted stocks showed solidity in price movement after wild swings in recent sessions, mentioned the stockbroker.
IDLC Investments, a merchant bank, mentioned, "The investors were trying to ride on volatility and earn some spreads from short-term positioning and repositioning and thus resorted to smaller cap classes".
The two other indices also ended in green zone. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, gained 4.02 points or 0.22 per cent to end at 1,818.60. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) advanced 1.50 points or 0.12 per cent to close at 1,169.16.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, rose to Tk 4.58 billion, which was 2.1 per cent higher than the previous session's Tk 4.48 billion.
The participants mostly focused on engineering, pharma and textiles - the sectors that accounted for 18 per cent, 17 per cent and 13 per cent respectively of the day's total turnover.
 "Investors from both side of the fence demonstrated their active presence during the session," said International Leasing Securities, a stockbroker, in an analysis.
The stockbroker noted that a major group of investors demonstrated buying interest in comparatively fundamentally sound stocks following the recent downbeat momentum while another group made profit booking sell-offs due to fear of further fall in stock prices.
"Investors failed to understand any clear indication of the market outlook, which created choppy trading during the session," said the stockbroker.
Among the major sectors, pharmaceuticals, food and allied, telecommunications and fuel and power increased 1.5 per cent, 0.22 per cent, 0.18 per cent and 0.10 per cent respectively while bank and NBFIs went down by 0.12 per cent and 0.66 per cent respectively.
The market breath, however, remained negative as out of 322 issues traded, 143 closed lower, 139 ended higher and 40 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Activities increased in the major bourse where trade was up by 8.32 per cent, but volume went down by 0.80 per cent.  
A total of 0.1122 million trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 118.35 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE stood at Tk 3,337.32 billion against Tk 3,331.88 billion in the previous session.
Bangladesh Steels Re-rolling Mills (BSRM) dominated the day's turnover chart with shares of Tk 195.42 million changed hands followed by Aman Feed, Lafarge Surma Cement, ACI and Al-Haj Textiles.
Deshbandhu Polymer was the day's best performer, posting a rise of 9.93 per cent while Exim Bank First Mutual Fund was the day's worst loser, plunging by 10 per cent.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), closed in the red with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX - lost 0.35 4.12 points to end at 8,869.53.
Losers beat gainers, with 24 issues remained unchanged on the port city bourse that traded 9.12 million shares and mutual fund units with a value of Tk 302 million.
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