The market inched higher on Tuesday after high volatility as investors remained cautious amid a rising trend of Covid-19 infected patients in recent days.
The market opened higher and the key index rose about 40 points within the first 20 minutes of trading and fell sharply by 50 points in the next one hour. However, the rest of the session went through modest volatility.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 1.53 points or 0.02 per cent to settle at 5,413, after gaining 62 points in the previous day.
Meanwhile, investors lost their appetite for newly listed NRB Commercial Bank as the bank emerged as the third top loser on the second day of debut trading.
The bank’s share closed at Tk 12.40 on Tuesday, losing 6.06 per cent over the previous day.
Unlike every debutant in the recent trend, the NRBC Bank also failed to attract many investors on its first-day trading despite its profit after tax jumped 539 per cent year-on-year to Tk 1,406.42 million in January-September, 2020.
Market analysts said the market stayed almost flat as investors were convinced that the government will not impose any lockdown despite fresh rising trends of coronavirus cases.
Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) issued a statement on Monday saying the share trading will continue as usual amid the Covid-19 pandemic and urged the investors not to pay to heed to any market closure rumour.
However, investors' worry remained as the number of deaths and infection rate kept rising, said a merchant banker.
The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) also edged up by 1.64 points to close at 1,237. However, the DSE30 Index, comprising blue chips, lost 3.29 points to finish at 2,063.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, dropped to Tk 6.31 billion, which was 9.0 per cent lower than the previous day’s turnover of Tk 6.93 billion.
Losers took a strong lead over the gainers, as out of 345 issues traded, 138 declined, 93 advanced and 114 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Beximco - the flagship company of Beximco Group- was the most-traded stock with shares worth about Tk 611 million changing hands, followed by Beximco Pharma, Robi, LankaBangla Finance, and BATBC.
The insurance companies dominated the day’s gainer chart as all top 10 gainers were belonging to the insurance sector.
Continental Insurance was the day’s top gainer, posting a gain of 9.96 per cent while Aziz Pipes was the worst loser, losing 6.64 per cent.
A total number of 139,985 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with a trading volume of 161.41 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of DSE dropped to Tk 4,700 billion on Tuesday, up from Tk 4,723 billion in the previous session.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also edged higher with the CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI –gaining 6.28points to settle at 15,671 and the Selective Categories Index – CSCX advancing 4.92 points to close at 9,453.
Of the issues traded, 92 declined, 78 advanced and 63 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city’s bourse traded 9.12 million shares and mutual fund units with a turnover value of Tk 235 million.
