Stocks edged higher Wednesday amid increased turnover, despite technical glitch delayed trade on the country's major bourse.
Trading, that usually takes place between 10:30am and 2:30pm, resumed at 12:10pm and continued till 4:10pm. However, trading took place for four hours as usual.
The glitch however could not affect the market sentiment as DSEX, the prime index of the DSE went up by 30.15 points or 0.63 per cent to settle at 4,821.62, after witnessing four bearish sessions.
The two other indices also edged higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, gained 8.65 points or 0.46 per cent to end at 1,868.13. DSES index advanced 8.63 points or 0.73 per cent to finish at 1,192.72.
Turnover, the another important indicator of the market, improved to Tk 6.15 billion in the prime bourse, which was 12.6 per cent higher than the previous day's Tk 5.46 billion.
The participants' attention remained mostly focused on engineering, power and pharma - the sectors that accounted for 22 per cent, 16 per cent and 15 per cent of the day's total turnover.
"Lucrative price range in some big-cap stocks really provoked the dynamic investors to take position as the market ended with gain after four sessions' downfall," said MTB Capital Limited, merchant bank, in an analysis.
International Leasing Securities, a stockbroker, said "Investors preferred to take position on the stocks that witnessed sizable correction in prices during the last four sessions".
Buying of shares sustained from the beginning of the session amid optimism. Price appreciation in bank, fuel and power and engineering mostly helped the bourse to turn into green, said the stockbroker.
"Overall market sentiment was buoyant as investors were looking for an upbeat reversal. Engineering and textile sectors, with banks pushing from the flank," said IDLC Investments, a merchant bank, in an analysis.
LankaBangla Securities, a stockbroker, said, "After one hour and forty minutes of suspension trading started with sharp rise, with prime index stayed above the 4,800-mark supported by bank, engineering and selective stocks of other sectors".
"Some value stocks reignited the rally as investors came back with buoyancy," said the stockbroker.
All large-cap sectors showed mixed performance. Banks gained the highest with 1.32 per cent followed by power 0.99 per cent food and allied 0.36 per cent.
NBFIs closed the session flat in green. Pharmaceuticals lost 0.40 per cent while telecommunication retraced by a meager 0.19 per cent.
The gainers took a strong lead over the losers as out of 309 issues traded, 183 advanced, 75 declined and 51 remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
Activities increased in the major bourse where volume and trade were up by 1.34 per cent and 4.24 per cent respectively. A total number of 0.134 million trades were executed with trading volume of 133.93 million securities.
The market capitalisation on DSE stood at Tk 3,380.92 billion against Tk 3,365.86 billion in the previous trading session.
United Power Generation and Distribution Company remained the day's top turnover leader with shares worth Tk 278 million changing hands followed by RSRM Steels, SPCL, Al-Haj Textile and Square Pharma.
Islami Bank was the day's best performer, posting a rise of 9.96 per cent while Midas Financing was the day's worst loser, plunging by 5.40 per cent.
However, trading at the port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) started on time at 10:30am and closed at 2:30pm. The port city bourse also closed higher with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX - rose 68.69 points to close at 9,018.03.
Gainers beat losers 148 to 67, with 39 issues remaining unchanged at the port city bourse that traded 11.05 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover of Tk 1.05 billion.
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