Stocks extended the winning streak for the second straight session on Thursday as bargain hunters showed their buying appetite for sector-specific large-cap issues.
DSEX, the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 65.80 points or 1.17 per cent to settle at 5,647. DSEX added roughly 83 points in the past two consecutive sessions.
The daily trade turnover on the DSE, however, stayed below Tk 8.0 billion-mark at Tk 7.13 billion, which was more than 10 per cent lower than the previous day's Tk 7.95 billion.
However, investors lost their appetite for newly-listed shares of Mir Akther Hossain, which passed off its third trading day, sending its stock price almost 10 per cent down to Tk 90.20 a share, making it the day's worst loser.
Mir Akhter, which raised Tk 1.25 billion through initial public offering (IPO) recently, surged more than 85 per cent in the past two trading days from its issue price of Tk 54 each.
Debutant Mir Akther lost ground as the stock market regulator formed a two-member body on Wednesday to probe the role of market operators behind the unusual price hike of shares of newly-listed companies, said an analyst.
The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) probe body will also identify the fake buy orders placed for the shares of Mir Akhter at high prices by some brokerage firms before starting the trading session.
Two other indices also ended higher. The DSE 30 Index comprising blue chips rose 37.27 points to finish at 2,173 and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) advanced 10.73 points to close at 1,261.
The top positive index contributors were British American Tobacco, Grameenphone, Square Pharmaceuticals, Beximco Pharma and Brac Bank, according to data from amarstock.com, a stock market data analyst is platform.
The recent volatile market sent the share prices of around 80 companies to their floor price level which tempted the optimistic investors to take positions on the lucrative prices, commented International Leasing.
The stockbroker noted that the investors in food, life insurance, banking, pharma and financial institution sectors helped the benchmark index remain vibrant amid some selling pressure on cement, engineering, power and telecom sectors based on the latest corporate declarations.
According to EBL Securities, investors' participation saw a cautious trading strategy as most of them showed resilience in investing fresh funds into stocks amid intense volatility in the market.
Among the major sectors, food & allied saw the highest gain of 5.30 per cent riding on the sector heavyweight British American Tobacco, followed by banking with 1.20 per cent, pharmaceuticals 1.10 per cent and non-bank financial institutions 0.80 per cent.
Gainers took a marginal lead over the losers, as out of 355 issues traded, 133 advanced, 106 declined and 116 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Beximco, the flagship company of business conglomerate Beximco Group, continued to dominate the turnover chart with 10.26 million shares worth Tk 852 million changing hands, followed by British American Tobacco, Robi, LankaBangla Finance and Beximco Pharma.
Primer Insurance was the best performer, posting a gain of 8.55 per cent, while debutant Mir Akther was the worst loser, losing 9.98 per cent.
A total of 132,090 trades were executed in the day's trading session with a trading volume of 170.23 million shares and mutual fund units.
Market-cap of the DSE rose to Tk 4,793 billion on Thursday, from Tk 4,767 billion of the previous day.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also kept gaining with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -advancing 165 points to settle at 16,331 and the Selective Categories Index -- CSCX -- rising nearly 100 points to close at 9,853.
The port city's bourse traded 9.11 million shares and mutual fund units with the turnover value at Tk 351 million.
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