Stocks gain 37 points after two-day nosedive

DSEX, the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), rose 37.51 points or 0.59 per cent to 6,417 on Wednesday as the investors turned positive mood on the bourse ahead of the monetary policy announcement.

However, amid the limited trading window allowed during the ongoing lockdown, investors’ participation in major sectors decreased slightly while the total turnover declined by 6.97 per cent to finish at Tk 1,360 crore.

Investors hope that the central bank will continue with the market-friendly monetary policy to be announced on Thursday.

After the last two session’s correction, the bargain hunters revealed their buying interest from the opening of the Wednesday’s session which continued till the closing of the day.

Out of the total 375 issues traded, 218 advanced, 122 declined, and 35 remained unchanged at the Dhaka bourse.

At the day’s end, the DSES, a shariah based index and DS30, the blue chips share index, added 8.13 points and 14.74 points respectively to their previous day’s level.

International Leasing Securities in its daily market commentary said that the opportunist investors took position in life insurance, general insurance, mutual funds, textile, pharma and bank sector stocks ahead of quarter-end earnings disclosures and year-end dividend declarations.

However, some other investors reshuffled their investment in cement, services and financial institution sectors.

Trading activities plunged by 7 per cent over the last session as they adopted “wait and see” stance ahead of the announcement of the monetary policy for the current fiscal year, it said.

The investors’ activity was mostly centered on general insurance (16.4 per cent), pharma (11.1 per cent) and engineering (9.0 per cent) in the sector wise trade, while Fu Wang Ceramics (3.2 per cent), Saif Powertec (3.1 per cent) and BEXIMCO (2.9 per cent) led the scrip wise turnover at the DSE.

Meanwhile, the port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also ended in green terrain.