Stocks edged higher Wednesday amid cautious trading as investors seemed to be more active in generating quick return and indecisive for long term positioning.
"In the short-term, the market was getting extended with improved turnover amid cautious trading attitude of market makers," said a stock broker.
The market opened with an upbeat mood and the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange - DSEX gained 47.17 points within 30 minutes of trade. But profit taking on some issues mainly banks, fuel & power sector and telecommunications restricted some gains, eventually ended marginally higher.
After four hour trading, the prime index of the DSE - DSEX closed at 4,212.72 points, gaining 15.01 points or 0.35 per cent, the last day of 84-hour shutdown across the country.
The DS30 index, including blue chips also went up by 4.73 points or 0.33 per cent to close the session at 1,443.44 points.
The total turnover value on DSE stood at Tk 4.71 billion, registering 24 per cent increase over the previous session's value of Tk 3.81 billion.
Of the total turnover value, 25 per cent of the total turnover coming from the textile sector alone. Generation Next Fashion was the most traded stock with a turnover of Tk 477.7 million. Four more issues from the textile sector featured in the top ten turnover list - which are RN Spinning, Argon Denims, Tallu Spinning and Envoy Textiles.
"As the surge in bank sector sedated, alpha hunters scrambled, seeking superior return from other undervalued investment opportunities," said IDLC Investments, a leading stock broker.
Much of the extensive search ended in textile pushing its turnover to Tk 1.25 billion level and generating 2.47 per cent return. Alongside, scrip wise swings were also observed in the day's session, resulting from recent mixed earning declarations, said the merchant bank.
"Volatility has become a key idiosyncrasy of daily trade reflecting the day to day mixed participation of investors and dubious swings in large cap stocks," observed LankaBangla Securities, a leading stock broker.
The string of political strike over last few weeks subdued the resilient economic data released in recent time - making the investment scenario uneven, said the stock broker.
"Investors have taken the fundamental condition of market in stride, thereby benchmark index (DSEX) climbed up modestly," it said.
Though, market capitalization of bank and fuel & power sectors suffered by 0.4 per cent and 0.2 per cent loss, all other large and mid-cap stocks were in buying spree to hold up the benchmark index above 4,200 points level, the stock broker added.
"Investors seemed to be vibrant in purchasing stocks which gave a boost to market's core strength. Shareholders showed interest in almost all the major sectors, trying to diversify risk to mitigate loss and generate higher return," said Zenith Investments.
The gainers took a strong lead over the losers as out of 278 issues traded, 188 gained, 71 declined and 19 remained unchanged on the primer bourse.
Among the major sectors, NBFIs and pharmaceuticals edged up by 0.34 per cent and 0.37 per cent respectively.
The other sectors retraced - banks, fuel & power and telecommunications down 0.36 per cent, 0.20 per cent and 0.18 per cent respectivi9ly. Apart from these three, all the other sectors ended in green.
Activities increased in the major bourse. A total of 0.121 million trades were executed with 142.63 million trading volume. The market capitalisation of the DSE stood at Tk 2,611.37 billion against Tk 2,599.71 billion in the previous session.
Anlima Yarn was the day's highest gainer, posting a rise of 10 per cent while Rahim Textile was the day's worst losers, slumping by 13 per cent following its price adjustment after record date.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended marginally higher, with its Selective Categories Index gained 10.99 points to close at 8,223.94 points.
