Stocks close higher for second day

Stocks edged higher for the second running session Tuesday with turnover improved further as investors took position amid optimism. The market opened with a positive note and the key index of the prime bourse gained 32 points within first 30 minutes of trade. But it slowed down as session progress, eventually ended only 5 points higher. At the end of the trading session, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) --- DSEX --- ended at 4,756.88 points, 5.30 points or 0.11 per cent from previous session. The other two indices also closed positive. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips gained 3.39 points or 0.20 per cent to close at 1,689.68 points. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) advanced 1.73 points or 0.17 per cent to close at 993.48 points.The total turnover on DSE stood at Tk 5.42 billion, registering 2.84 per cent increase over the previous session’s value of Tk 5.27 billion. The number of gainers and losers were almost same as out of 293 issues traded, 128 advanced, 126 declined and 39 issues closed unchanged on the DSE floor. The market capitalization of the DSE stood at Tk 2,907.70 billion against Tk 2,899.96 billion in the previous session. Olympic Industries dominated the top turnover chart with shares worth Tk 317.16 million changing hands followed by GP, Apex Footwear, BSC and BSCCL. Apex Spinning was the day’s highest gainer; posting a rise of 9.89 per cent while NCC Bank Mutual Fund-1 was the day’s worst losers, slumping by 9.34 per cent. The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also closed marginally higher with its Selective Categories Index – CSCX gained 8.30 points to close at 9,341.83 points. Losers beat gainers 117 to 89, with 27 issues remaining unchanged at the port city bourse that traded 9.38 million shares and mutual fund units, turnover value of Tk 487.40 million.