Stocks up, turnover marks 46pc rise

FE Report Dhaka stocks continued to soar for the second straight session Thursday and DGEN crossed the 5,000-points mark again with improved turnover, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's intervention to stabilise the volatile stock market. The market insiders said the investors went for fresh buying in the last two days---Wednesday and Thursday---as the Prime Minister held a four-hour meeting with all the stakeholders of the stock market Wednesday night to find ways to prop up the market. According to the meeting, the government took long, medium and short-term steps to stabilise the stock market and compensate those who lost money as the market nosedived since late 2010. The market opened with a flying note Thursday, gaining more than 150 points within 10 minutes and the upbeat mood continued amid moderate ups and down and finally ended 179 points lower. The benchmark general index of the DSE climbed 179.39 points or 3.59 per cent and crossed the 5,000 points mark to close at 5,166.96. In the last two sessions, the DSE general index DGEN advanced 517 points or 10.86 per cent. The broader DSE All Shares Price Index (DSI) surged 150.28 points or 3.60 per cent to close at 4,321.57. The DSE-20 blue-chip index also went up by 82.44 points or 2.16 per cent to close at 3,893.04. AB Mirza Azizul Islam, former finance adviser to the caretaker government said that the investors' started to regain their lost confidence following the Prime Minister's intervention. However, he said, the unusual rise or fall is not good for the market. Gainers heavily outnumbered losers by 238 to 16 and one issue remained unchanged while most of the shares touched their upper circuit breakers limit. The day's total turnover increased to Tk 4.16 billion in value terms, up by 46.1 per cent compared to Wednesday's Tk 2.85 billion. Thursday's turnover was more than one month high since October 10 when the turnover value was Tk 4.19 billion. A total of 70.06 million shares changed hands on the day against 46.07 million in the previous session. The trade deals also increased to 120,671 against Wednesday's 86,862. Total market capitalisation of the DSE increased to Tk 2,578.81 billion against Tk 2,511.25 billion in the previous session. All sectors ended in the deep green zone as buying pressure intensified across the board. Among the major sectors---NBFIs and pharmaceuticals gained 6.94 per cent and 4.66 per cent respectively. Heavy weight banking and telecommunications recorded modest rise of 1.38 per cent and 0.74 per cent respectively, though more than 41 per cent of the day's turnover took place in the sectors. Beximco Limited topped the turnover list with shares worth Tk 201.81 million changing hands. The other turnover leaders were Grameenphone, National bank, SIBL, UCBL, Fu-Wang Foods, Mercantile Bank, Titas Gas, Beximco Pharma and Sumit Power. Karnaphuli Insurance was the day's highest gainer posting a rise of 10 per cent. It was followed by Miracle industries, Beach Hatchery, Malek Spinning, Aftab Auto, Peoples Insurance, Legacy Footwear, BD Finance, Saiham Textile and Rupali Insurance. The day's worst losers included Chittagong Vegetable, Metro Spinning, Gemini Sea Foods, AIBL First Islamic Mutual Fund, Pragati Life Insurance, National Tea Company, EBL NRB Mutual Fund, ICB AMCL First Mutual Fund, Stylecraft Limited and ACI Zero Coupon Bond.