Stocks end higher for 2nd straight session

Stocks ended higher for the second straight session Tuesday with significant improvement in turnover due to strong buying and selling pressure.
Following previous day's uptrend, market opened the session on an upbeat note gaining about 43 points within the first 15 minutes of trade. It remained in green for the remaining session as well but amid trifling fluctuations.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) went up by 26.30 points or 0.57 per cent to close at 4,590.65 points. It is the four months highest level of DSEX since April 28, 2014.
The DSE Shariah Index advanced 2.45 points or 0.23 per cent to close at 1,065.47 points. However, the DS30, comprising blue chips closed negative with losing 0.03 point to end at 1,728.41 points.
Trading at DSE remained vibrant with total turnover hitting seven-month high to Tk 7.95 billion, registering an increase of 12.44 per cent over the previous session's value of Tk 7.07 billion.
"The prime bourse - DSE stretched its bullish spell amidst investors' buoyant attitude. The steady upward movement continued along with growing investors' participation," said International Leasing Securities, in its regular market analysis.
The investors' optimism aided the rally in several scrips from pharmaceuticals sector, particularly Beximco Pharma and Orion Pharma, the International Leasing Securities said.
However, investors' indecisiveness was noticed in the textile sector amidst NBR's new policy regarding income tax calculation for RMG exporters, it added.
"Large cap stocks further extended the dominance in turnover, with Beximco Limited topped the chart for the fifth consecutive day," said IDLC Investments.
Investors' participation remained strong and turnover spiked at Tk 7.95 billion, highest within last seven months, said the merchant bank.
"Bull has once again picked up its pace with the benchmark index DSEX heading towards 4,600 marks," said LankaBangla Securities.
"The traders favoring the winning stocks are adjusting the losing stocks during trading session which implies the slowdown of the market after mid-day and subdued performance by blue chip stocks, DS30 was narrowly unchanged," commented Sheltech Brokerage Ltd.
Among the large cap sectors, only banks and pharmaceuticals advanced by 1.26 per cent and 1.02 per cent respectively.
The other major sectors closed negative. Telecommunication lost the most - 2.62 per cent. NBFIs and fuel & power went down 0.67 per cent and 0.40 per cent respectively. Food & allied also edged down with 0.06 per cent loss.
The gainers took a lead over the losers as out of 298 issues traded, 195 advanced, 80 declined and 23 remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
Activities increased in the major bourse (DSE) where trade and volume were up by 8.86 per cent and 17.69 per cent respectively. A total of 0.153 million trades were executed with 188.49 million securities of trading volume.
The total market capitalisation on DSE stood at Tk 3,018.89 billion against Tk 3,024.13 billion in the previous session.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also closed higher with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX - gained 60.33 points to close at 8,674.45 points.
Losers beat gainers 142 to 67, with 15 issues remaining unchanged at the port city bourse that traded 15.65 million shares and mutual fund units, turnover value of Tk 535.28 million.