Stocks open year on high note

Stocks ended higher on Tuesday, the opening day of the New Year 2019, as optimistic investors showed their buying spree on sector-wise issues amid positive expectations.
The market started the day on positive note and the upward trend continued till end of the session with no sign of reversal.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), crossed the 5,400-mark once again and ended at 5,465, gaining nearly 80 points or 1.47 per cent.
Market insiders said investors were active on sector specific issues amid new hope in the New Year 2019 as the political situation eased after the national elections.
Trading opened on bourses Tuesday after four-day vacation due to national elections, bank holiday and weekly holidays.
The two other indices ended higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 27.41 points to finish at 1,908 and the DSES (Shariah) index soared 12.98 points to settle at 1,245.
Trading activities, however, remained low as total turnover declined to Tk 5.30 billion, which was 1.48 per cent lower than the previous day's Tk 5.38 billion.
The textile sector dominated the turnover chart, grabbing 19 per cent of the day's total turnover, closely followed by engineering 18 per cent and pharmaceuticals 12 per cent.
A total number of 136,917 trades were executed in the day's session with trading volume of 153.04 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market cap of DSE increased to Tk 3,912 billion which was Tk 3,872 billion in the previous day.
The gainers took a strong lead over the losers as out of 341 issues traded, 264 closed higher, 54 ended lower and 23 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
BBS Cables topped the day's turnover chart with shares worth Tk 313 million changing hands, closely followed by Paramount Textile, Beximco, IFAD Autos and Khulna Power Company.
ML Dyeing was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 9.76 per cent while National Life Insurance was the day's worst loser, shedding 6.19 per cent.
The port city bourse CSE ended higher with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - gaining 281 points to settle at 16,730 while the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -advancing 167 points to finish at 10,115.
Here too, the gainers beat the losers as 198 issues closed higher, 39 ended higher and 11 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse traded 10.70 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 245 million in turnover.

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