Stocks edge up after 4-day strong rally

Dhaka stocks rose slightly amid volatility on Thursday, after four-day steepest rise.

The market was in the positive territory briefly in the morning and moved between red and green throughout the day before ending marginally up at close.

Slides in some large cap sectors like banks and insurers kept the benchmark index gains in check after a four-day rally.

The DSEX has risen 12 points or 0.19 percent to settle at 6,312 over the past four sessions, its best performance in 15 months. However, in five days, it accumulated 330 points.

Along with the key index, two junior indices also ended slightly higher. The blue-chip index DS30 was up over 4 points or 0.34 per cent to 2,265 while the Shariah-based DSES index added 6 points or 0.28 per cent to 1,375.

“The bourse observed volatility throughout the session as participants were engaged in profit booking activities, taking advantage of the continuous upward momentum in the past few sessions riding on some favorable regulatory interventions, however, some last moment optimism helped to keep the index up,” said the EBL Securities in its post market commentary.

However, the latest circular from Bangladesh Bank regarding the banks’ exposure in the stock market investments is expected to drive positive market psychology in the next few sessions as well, it said.

Heavyweights Walton-Hi Tech Industries (+1.92 per cent) and Grameenphone (+0.67 per cent) helped pull up the market. The two companies added more than 7 points to the key index.

The extreme volatility made investors cautious, putting a lid on turnover that stood at Tk 1,190 crore, down 0.43 per cent  over the previous session.

Textile sector dominated the turnover accounting for over 27.40 per cent of the total turnover.

Insurance sector faced most profit-booking sell pressure slumping more than 2 per cent led by Federal Insurance which was the top loser of the day falling 6.64 per cent. Of the top ten losers, eight came from the insurance sector.

However, market capitalization reached Tk 513,477 crore, registering a rise of 0.24 per cent.

ACME Pesticides Limited and Union Capital Limited hit the upper limit circuit breaker rising more than 10 per cent each. The port city bourse, CSE, also, settled in green terrain. The selected indices (CSCX) and All Share Price Index (CASPI) have advanced by 36.0 and 57.8 points respectively.