Turnover on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) climbed to three-month high on Tuesday as enthusiastic investors, mostly institutional ones, put fresh stakes on stocks amid eased lockdown worries.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, stood at Tk 12.99 billion on the country's premier bourse, in a further rise by 86 per cent over previous day's tally of Tk 6.97 billion.
It happens to be the biggest single-day transaction since January 25, this year, when the turnover totaled a record amount of Tk 15.85 billion.
However, block trade contributed 31 per cent of the day's total turnover as some 27 companies worth Tk 4.02 billion came from the block trade. Grameenphone (Tk 1.24 billion), Provati Insurance (Tk 1.27 billion) and United Power (Tk 1.25 billion) dominated the block trade board.
The market started on upward trend on Tuesday which continued until end of the session with no sign of reversal amid growing confidence of investors to the market.
DSEX, the benchmark index of the DSE, soared 71.86 points or 1.34 per cent to settle at 5,421.
DSEX added more than 257 points in the past six consecutive sessions.
Market analysts said the recent growth in turnover and index -- the two most important indicators of the market -- in general suggests investors' confidence in the market is back on the ascent despite strict lockdown extended for one week more.
Easing virus-induced lockdown worries, lucrative price levels of stocks, increased margin loan limit coupled with lowering the circuit breaker for several companies prompted investors to put fresh funds on stocks, said a leading merchant banker.
"Continuous growth in turnover pushed investors' confidence high and high volume suggested that institutional investors were largely active in the market," he said.
Beating worries of rising Covid-19 cases and extension of lockdown, the investors turned their focus to sectors wise low-priced stocks as they believe continuation of industrial activities will continue to drive economic recovery, commented EBL Securities.
The stockbroker noted that the regulatory efforts to keep the market open despite lockdown largely contributed to tame investors' worries.
Buoyancy was observed in almost all the major sectors amid rising confidence of the investors in the market beating the lockdown worries, commented International Leasing Securities.
Most of the sectors posted gain with cement saw the highest return of 4.10 per cent, followed by financial institutions with 2.70 per cent, power 1.90 per cent, engineering 1.50 per cent, pharma 1.40 per cent and banking 0.70 per cent.
On the other hand, general insurance sector faced marginal correction of 0.50 per cent after soaring 5.90 per cent in the previous day.
Gainers took a strong lead over the losers, as out of 354 issues traded, 193 advanced, 98 declined and 63 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Beximco - the flagship company of Beximco Group- continued to dominate the turnover chart with shares worth about Tk 1.48 billion changing hands, followed by Beximco Pharma (Tk 477 million), LankaBangla Finance (Tk 374 million), Robi (Tk 372 million) and BD Finance (Tk 355 million).
Eastern Insurance was the day's top gainer, posting a 9.93 per cent gain while Provati Insurance was the worst loser, losing 6.38 per cent.
A total number of 154,673 trades were executed in the day's trading session with a trading volume of 256.08 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of DSE also rose to Tk 4,690 billion on Tuesday, up from Tk 4,643 billion in the previous session.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended higher with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -soaring 214 points to settle at 15,685 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX rising 130 points to close at 9,463.
Of the issues traded, 133 advanced, 76 declined and 28 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city's bourse traded 13.87 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover value of Tk 715 million.
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