Stocks edge up on banking buoyancy

Stocks edged higher Thursday extending the gaining streak for the third session in a row, supported by bank, pharma and non-bank financial issues.
The opening hour witnessed volatility, but began to soar, as investors intensified their buying binge in some large and mid-cap stocks.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 23.18 points or 0.48 per cent to settle the week at 4,840.15.
The two other indices also closed in green zone. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, inched up 1.58 points or 0.08 per cent to end at 1,850.94. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) gained 2.63 points or 0.22 per cent to close at 1,191.
"The bourse marginally gained with the help of large and mid-cap stocks as some money flew into these stocks in expectation of relatively certain payoff," said IDLC Investments, a merchant bank, in an analysis.
The merchant bank noted the investors sold some of their stakes in cement and telecommunication and diverted their funds to bank and pharmaceuticals.
Turnover, the crucial indicator of the market, rose to Tk 5.96 billion, which was 8.36 per cent higher than the previous day's Tk 5.50 billion.
The participants kept their attention on engineering, pharma and power-the sectors that accounted for 16 per cent, 15 per cent and 12 per cent of the day's total turnover.
"While trading activity was somewhat subdued, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day," said LankaBangla Securities, a stockbroker, in its daily analysis.
"The upward move on the day came on the heels of the buoyant move in the banking stocks," said the stockbroker.
International Leasing Securities, a stockbroker, said, "Recent downbeat momentum on the leading bourse has created some stimulus for undervaluation, which might have helped the investors to take position on fundamentally sound stocks".
The large-cap sectors showed mixed performance. Banks saw the highest gain of 1.16 per cent followed by pharmaceuticals 0.57 per cent, NBFIs 0.47 per cent and food and allied 0.12 per cent.
Cement sector lost 0.94 per cent, followed by telecommunication 0.16 per cent and fuel and power 0.09 per cent.
The gainers took the lead over the losers as out of 318 issues traded, 156 closed higher, 116 lower and 46 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Activities increased in the major bourse where volume and trade were up 1.30 per cent and 0.04 per cent respectively. A total number of 0.129 million trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 144.48 million securities.
The market capitalisation on the DSE stood at Tk 3,373.19 billion against Tk 3,364.72 billion in the previous trading session.
Lafarge Surma Cement dominated the turnover chart with shares of Tk 321 million changing hands followed by Square Pharma, Shahjibazar Power, Bangladesh Building Systems and Islami Bank.
Al-Haj Textile was the day's best performer, posting a rise of 9.35 per cent while ICB Second Mutual Fund was the day's worst loser, plunging by 5.86 per cent.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also closed marginally higher with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX - gained 36.38 points to end at 9,027.44.
Gainers beat losers, with 39 issues remaining unchanged on the port city bourse that traded 12 million shares and mutual fund units with a value of Tk 414 million.
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