Stocks extended the winning streak for the two consecutive sessions Wednesday as investors continued their buying appetite on selective large-cap stocks, especially Lafarge Surma Cement.
Lafarge, the multinational cement maker, dominated the day's turnover chart with 16.02 million shares worth Tk 1.13 billion changing hands. It also topped the day's gainer chart, soaring 7.16 per cent to close at Tk 70.30.
Share prices of Lafarge soared 36.77 per cent or Tk 18.90 each in the past four consecutive sessions after the acquisition news of Holcim Bangladesh.
Riding on Lafarge, the total turnover on the premier bourse rose to Tk 5.52 billion, which was nearly 49 per cent higher from the previous day's Tk 3.71 billion.
Market insiders said as Lafarge is the seventh largest market-cap listed company in Bangladesh, its price movement affected the overall market.
The market started the day on positive movement and at the middle of the session, it saw sale pressure. However, the market observed heavy buy pressure, especially, Lafarge and Olympic Industries and subsequently recovered the incurred loss and ended in the green zone.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 6,186, gaining 18.89 points or 0.31 per cent over the previous day.
"The capital market observed a winning session amid optimism. The core index remained upward throughout the session with some correction in the middle," commented EBL Securities, a stockbroker, in its regular market analysis.
The stockbroker noted that investors buying pressure continued on sector-specific stocks from cement, food & allied and banking sector.
The two other indices also closed higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips rose 16.46 points or 0.73 per cent to close at 2,261. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) advanced 7.58 points or 0.55 per cent to finish at 1,379.
According to LankaBangla Securities, index started the day with positive movement, but fell down after an hour of trading. However, during the final 30 minutes, the index moved up again and closed in green."
The stockbroker noted that the movement in index has largely been contributed by the market-cap movement of Lafarge. A total of 20.52 per cent of the day's market turnover was generated by Lafarge.
The market turnover got some boost after experiencing drought in the last few sessions and reached Tk 5.52 billion, led by Lafarge.
However, the losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 335 issues traded, 191 closed lower, 91 closed higher and 53 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
The large-cap sectors showed mixed performance. Food & allied sector witnessed the highest gain of 1.94 per cent, followed by banking sector with 0.85 per cent, telecommunication 0.26 per cent and power 0.01 per cent.
Lafarge topped the day's turnover chart with 16.02 million shares of Tk 1.13 billion changing hands, followed by Olympic Industries, Islami Bank, City Bank, Paramount textile and Nahee Aluminium.
Lafarge was the day's best performer for the second day in a row, posting a gain of 7.16 per cent while Progressive Life Insurance was the day's worst loser, shedding 7.60 per cent. Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also edged higher with CSE All Shares Price Index of advancing 39 points to finish at 19,123.
The Selective Categories Index of the port city bourse -- CSCX -- also gained 26 points to settle at 11,562.
Losers beat gainers as 133 issues closed lower, 70 closed higher and 37 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 18.14 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 671 million.
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