Stocks posted the marginal gain for second day in a row on Thursday as some investors continued their buying appetite on sector-wise stocks.
Market insiders said lucrative price levels coupled with positive support from state-run Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) helped the market to close higher for second day.
The market started on positive note and the core index rose about 28 points within first hour of trading. But rest of the eroded some of the early gains. Finally DSE key index rose more than 16 points at closing.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, settle at the week at 5,259, advancing 16.89 points or 0.32 per cent over the previous day.
Two other indices—the DS30 index and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES)–also edged higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 5.37 points to finish at 1,859 and the DSE Shariah Index rose 2.94 points to close at 1,210.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, also crossed Tk 5.0 billion-mark and amounted to Tk 5.93 billion, which was 22 per cent higher than the previous day’s Tk 4.84 billion.
The gainers took a modest lead over the losers as out of 336 issues traded, 158 closed higher, 135 lower and 43 securities unchanged on the premier bourse.
A total number of 143,337 trades were executed in the day’s trading session on the DSE with trading volume of 150.20 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also rose to Tk 3,812 billion on the day which was Tk 3,811 billion in the previous session.
Shepherd Industries dominated the DSE turnover chart with 6.31 million shares worth Tk 244 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were SK Trims Industries, Intech, BBS Cables and VFS Thread Dyeing.
CVO Petrochemicals Refinery was the day’s best performer, posting a gain of 9.99 per cent while Eastern Cables was the worst loser, losing 5.91 per cent.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended marginally higher with its CSE All Share Price Index–CASPI–gaining 41 points to settle at 16,108 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX –rising 22 points to finish at 9,758.
The gainers beat losers as 127 issues closed higher, 90 ended lower, with 24 issues remaining unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 7.83 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 254 million in turnover.
babulfexpress@gmail.com