Stocks inched higher Thursday after volatile trading as investors were mostly followed cautious stance amid growing concern over the country’s microeconomic situation.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, went up by 2.05 points to settle at 4,514, after hitting below 4,500-mark in intra-day trading.
Market analysts said despite the market inched higher, worries remained amid poor macroeconomic indicators, dearth of quality stocks and ongoing liquidity crunch in the banking sector.
Continuing fall in the private sector credit growth, declining export earnings, poor tax revenue collection and heavy government bank borrowing kept most of the investors cautious.
However, two other indices ended slightly lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 4.03 points to finish at 1,548 and the DSE Shariah Index saw a fractional loss of 0.86 point to close at 1,016.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, however, rose to Tk 3.50 billion, which was 19 per cent higher over the previous day’s turnover of Tk 2.94 billion.
Gainers took a modest lead over the losers as out of 353 issues traded, 169 closed higher, 126 ended lower and 58 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 115,159 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 131.82 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE also increased slightly to Tk 3,436 billion on Thursday, from Tk 3,430 billion in the previous session.
Ring Shine Textiles, which made trading debut on Thursday, topped the turnover chart with shares worth Tk 180 million changing hands, followed by Khulna Power, Northern Insurance, Square Pharma and Mercantile Insurance.
Khulna Power was the day’s best performer, posting a gain of 9.97 per cent while SEML FBLSL Growth Fund was the worst loser, losing 6.76 per cent.
The port city’s bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange, also posted marginal gain with its All Shares Price Index (CASPI)—advancing 13 points to close at 13,733 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX –gaining 7.28 points to finish at 8,331.
Here too, the gainers beat losers, as 109 issues closed higher, 90 ended lower and 37 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 13 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 265 million in turnover.