Stocks edge up amid cautious trading

Stocks inched higher for the second day in a row on Monday as a section of investors showed buying appetite amid cautious trading.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,296, advancing 5.78 points or 0.11 per cent over the previous day.
The market opened on positive note and the core index crossed the 5,300-mark, gaining 29 points within first hour of trading. But rest of the session eroded most of the early gains.
Market insiders said most of the investors followed cautious stance as the national parliamentary election nears while some showed buying binge on sector specific stocks.
"Election sentiments have gripped the psyche of investors and many of them have taken a cautious stance," said a leading broker.
"Positive movement across pharmaceutical, engineering, financial institutions and cement sectors led the day's rise," commented IDLC Securities, in its regular market analysis.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips also saw a fractional gain of 0.48 point to settle at 1855. However, the DSE Shariah Index fell 0.96 point to close at 1,225.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, however, fell to Tk 5.49 billion, which was nearly 5.0 per cent lower than the previous day's Tk 5.76 billion.
According to International Leasing Securities, buoyancy in ceramic, pharma, engineering and financial institution sectors helped the index to close green.
The stockbroker noted that trading activities fell further as the investors were not investing fresh fund in the market while some others continued rebalancing their portfolio.
A total number of 139,861 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 167.63 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE remained unchanged as total market cap stood at Tk 3,817 on Monday which was also Tk 3,817 billion in the previous day.
Pharmaceuticals posted the highest gain of 0.59 per cent, followed by engineering with 0.54 per cent, financial institutions 0.31 per cent, food 0.15 per cent and telecommunication 0.02 per cent.
The port city bourse CSE also posted marginal gain with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -advancing 38 points to settle at 16,264 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -gaining 20 point to finish at 9,857.
The gainers beat losers as 129 issues closed higher, 86 ended lower and 28 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 10.50 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 268 million in turnover.

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