Stocks posted a marginal gain on Tuesday, after a two-day moderate correction, driven mainly by general insurance shares.
The market opened higher which persisted till the end of the session with some volatility as investors mostly focused on general insurance issues.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 8.69 points or 0.14 per cent to settle at 6,022, after losing 53 points in the past two consecutive sessions.
The DSE 30 Index, comprising blue chips, also gained 3.90 points to finish at 2,176. However, the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) saw a fractional loss of 0.52 point to close at 1,284.
Market experts said stocks bounced back on gaining streak driven by general insurance, engineering and non-bank financial institutions sector issues.
General insurers continued to show robust performance with a gain of 4.0 per cent. Of the 38 listed general insurers, shareprices of 36 insurers closed higher and two ended lower.
The investors' activity mostly focused on general insurance sector, capturing 25 per cent of the day's total turnover, followed by engineering with 13 per cent and textile 12 per cent.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, crossed Tk 20 billion-mark after a single-day break and amounted to Tk 20.32 billion, which was 17 per cent higher than the previous day's mark of Tk 17.40 billion.
Overall market participants displayed a portfolio restructuring strategy while many investors rushed to participate in hyped-up insurance sector stocks, said a merchant banker.
EBL Securities said investors were active on both sides of the trading fence.A section of investors went for profit booking while some investors looked to take new positions on sector specific stocks.
Finance Bill 2021 may include the continuation of the special facility to whiten black money which can have a positive impact on the market, said the stockbroker.
According to International Leasing Securities, the bargain hunters showed their appetite riding on the news that the special facility to legalise undeclared income may likely to continue in the next fiscal year.
The stockbroker noted that the investors showed their appetite in general insurance, IT, cement, engineering and financial institutions sectors which helped the DSEX to edge higher.
Banking, telecom and food sectors witnessed corrections of 1.0 per cent, 0.80 per cent and 0.70 per cent respectively.
Losers, however, took a modest lead over the gainers, as out of 372 issues traded, 195 declined, 152 advanced and 25 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Beximco - the flagship company of Beximco Group- continued to dominate the turnover chart with shares worth Tk 966 million changing hands, followed by Pioneer Insurance (Tk 633 million), National Polymer (Tk 631 million), Pragati Insurance (Tk 405 million) and Lub-rref (Bangladesh) (Tk 399 million).
Energypac Power was the day's top gainer, hitting the upper limit circuit breaker with 10 per cent rise, while Intech was the worst loser, losing 5.92 per cent as its third quarter earnings plunged by 75 per cent to Tk 0.01 for January-March, 2021.
A total number of 306,267 trades were executed in the day's trading session with a trading volume of 581.62 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of DSE rose to Tk 5,066 billion on Tuesday, up from Tk 5,063 billion in the previous session.
However, the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), inched lower with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -losing 1.16 points to settle at 17,464 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX shedding 3.42 points to close at 10,513.
Of the issues traded, 167 declined, 118 advanced and 29 issues remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city's bourse traded 39.48 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover value of Tk 908 million.
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