Stocks ended marginally higher on Tuesday, extending the gaining streak for the second day in a row, as some investors continued their buying appetite on sector-specific shares.
Market operators said a section of investors showed their buying spree on pharmaceuticals, food, power and telecom issues, helping the market edge higher for the second day.
The market opened higher and the key index rose more than 59 points within the first hour of trading. But rest of the session wiped out most of the early gains. Finally, the key index closed more than 14 points higher.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,455, advancing 14.86 points or 0.27 per cent over the previous day.
According to LankaBangla Securities, this upward shift in the index is mainly driven by significant positive changes in large-cap sectors like pharma, food, power and telecommunication.
Accordingly, pharmaceuticals sector posted the highest gain of 1.62 per cent, followed by food 1.55 per cent, power 0.96 per cent and telecom 0.90 per cent.
Two other indices also ended higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 19.24 points to finish at 1,928 and the DSE Shariah Index rose 13.95 points to close at 1,278 points.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, remained same and total turnover on the DSE amounted to Tk 8.01 billion, which was also Tk 8.01 billion in the previous day.
The power sector dominated the turnover chart, capturing 24 per cent of the day's total turnover, followed by Textile with 15 per cent and pharmaceuticals 14 per cent.
International Leasing Securities said the investors took position on sector-specific stocks amid ongoing quarter-end earnings disclosures and the year-end dividend declarations.
A total number of 144,003 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 160.32 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE stood at Tk 3,918 billion on the day which was Tk 3,905 billion in the previous session.
The engineering sector faced the highest loss of 1.0 per cent, followed by banking with 0.65 per cent and financial institutions 0.60 per cent.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 338 issues traded, 195 closed lower, 101 ended higher and 42 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Khulna Power Company continued to dominate the DSE turnover chart with 6.30 million shares worth Tk 851 million changing hands. It was 10.60 per cent of the DSE's total turnover.
The other turnover leaders were United Power, Olympic Industries, Summit Power and BBS Cables.
Meghna Cement was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 10 per cent while Shympur Sugar Mills was the worst loser, losing 9.03 per cent.
The port city's bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also ended higher with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -advancing 66 points to settle at 16,841 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -gaining 43 points to finish at 10,202.
The losers beat gainers as 136 issues closed lower, 84 ended higher and 22 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 9.03 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 275 million in turnover.
[email protected]
