Stocks end higher for second day

Stocks edged higher for the second straight session Tuesday as optimistic investors remained on buying mood on large-cap stocks despite six-hour hartal enforced by Gonojagoron Mancha.
Meanwhile, a group of small investors under the banner of 'Bangladesh Share market investors' unity council' formed a human chain in front of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) for the second day.
The leaders of the council urged the authorities concerned for extending the deadline for bringing down banks' investment exposure in the stockmarket.
As per the deadline set in Bank Companies Act, the banks will have to adjust their over exposure to capital market by July, 2016.
The started with an upbeat note and the positive trend sustain till end of the session amid increased participation. DSEX, the prime index of the DSE, settle at 4,551.51, after gaining 15.46 points or 0.34 per cent.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, remained low though turnover increased 10.34 per cent from the previous session to Tk 3.20 billion.
The investors' attention was mostly focused on engineering, pharma and power - the sectors that accounted for 22 per cent, 17 per cent and 13 per cent respectively of the day's total turnover.  
"Gaining streak continued for the second consecutive session, as the index rallied from the starting of the day, closing above 4,550.0 points level," said IDLC Investments, a merchant bank, in an analysis.
"Since most of the quarterly earnings and corporate declarations became available, investors were busy with re-shuffling their positions," said the merchant bank.
Meanwhile, vacation of interim stay order by Supreme Court on ICB First Mutual Fund, AIMS First Mutual Fund and Grameen Mutual Fund One encouraged investors much with the hope of liquidation/conversion, said the merchant bank.
These mutual funds gained 3.3 per cent, 4.5 per cent and 9.3 per cent, respectively.
Sheltech Brokerage, said, "The market bounced back from the 4,490-level after few large cap stocks became technically oversold. The recent quarter earning streams made the traders reshuffle their portfolio at the same time".
However, the investor still have the question in mind whether the gaining session would sustained and would break the 'psychological' level of 4,600 level, said the stockbroker.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) closed marginally higher with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX - gaining 28.16 points to end at 8,468.17.
Gainers beat losers 118 to 82, with 42 issues remaining unchanged on the port city bourse that traded 6.92 million shares and mutual fund units with a value of Tk 229 million.
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