Stocks returned to the gaining on Tuesday, snapping a two-day losing streak, as pre-Eid sale pressure eased to some extent.
Only two trading days are left before Eid holidays as the market will remain closed from Friday to Monday, including weekly holidays, on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha, the second largest religious festival of the Muslims.
The market opened higher and the key index jumped 56 points within the first hour of trading. But, the rest of the session went down more than half of the early gain, ultimately ending over 25 points higher.
DSEX, the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 25.25 points or 0.39 per cent to settle at 6,372, after losing over 30 points in the past two days.
Turnover, the crucial indicator of the market, also jumped to Tk 9.61 billion, which was 45 per cent higher than the previous day’s tally of Tk 6.62 billion.
Market insiders said the optimistic investors preferred to buy shares at lucrative prices as the pre-Eid sale pressure eased to some extent.
However, the confidence of investors is yet to restore fully due to macroeconomic worries and rising Covid-19 cases in recent days, they said.
Meanwhile, Grameenphone (GP), the largest market-cap listed company’s share price surged by 3.01 per cent on Tuesday after losing around 6.0 per cent in the past three days. Its shares price plunged in the past three days as the telecom regulator banned it from selling new SIMs due to failure to provide quality service.
Two other indices also ended higher. The DS30 Index, which consists of the blue-chip companies, rose 17.96 points to close at 2,301 and the DSES Index, which represents Shariah-based listed firms, gained 4.08 points to finish at 1,389.
Gainers and losers almost the same as out of 382 issues traded, 160 closed higher and 159 ended lower while 63 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Beximco was the most-traded stock with shares worth Tk 950 million changing hands, followed by Robi Axiata (Tk 563 million), Titas Gas (Tk 447 million), Fu-Wang Food (Tk 292 million) and Grameenphone (Tk 288 million).
The state-run Eastern Cables was the top gainer, posting a 9.96 per cent rise while Al-Arafah Islami Bank was the day’s worst loser, losing 1.98 per cent.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also closed marginally higher with the CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI –gaining nearly 77 points to settle at 18,770 and the Selective Categories Index – CSCX –rising around 46 points to close at 11,250.
Of the issues traded, 133 advanced, 126 declined and 42 issues remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city’s bourse traded 14.52 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover value worth Tk 404 million.
