Stocks witnessed marginal gain for the second straight session on Tuesday as investors brought shares amid cautious stance.
Market insiders said a section of investors closely eyeing on the political development as elections nears while some were busy with rebalancing their portfolio.
The market opened on positive note and the core index crossed the 5,300-mark, gaining more than 24 points within first hour of trading. But rest of the session eroded most of the early gains.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,288, advancing 9.29 points or 0.17 per cent over the previous day.
Two other indices—the DS30 index and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES)–also ended slightly higher.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 4.31 points to finish at 1,862 and the DSE Shariah Index rose 2.15 points to close at 1,226.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, also rose to Tk 6.38 billion, which was 3.70 per cent higher than the previous day’s Tk 6.15 billion.
A total number of 151,846 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 149.10 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE stood at Tk 3,842 billion on the day which was Tk 3,828 billion in the previous day.
The gainers took a modest lead over the losers as out of 336 issues traded, 159 advanced, 133 declined and 44 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Khulna Power Company topped the DSE turnover chart with 5.35 million shares worth Tk 372 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were Berger Paints, United Power, Saiham Cotton Mills and Western Marine Shipyard.
ML Dyeing was the day’s best performer, posting a gain of 9.90 per cent while Atlas Bangladesh was the worst loser, losing 11.25 per cent following its price adjustment after record date.
The port city bourse CSE also ended slightly higher with its CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI –advancing 19 points to settle at 16,197 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX –gaining 10 points to finish at 9,820.
The losers beat gainers as 106 issues closed lower, 105 ended higher and 35 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 8.34 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 239 million in turnover.
babulfexpress@gmail.com