Stocks bounce back

After a single-day nosedive, stocks in Bangladesh bounced back with a positive note on Thursday as investors broke their selling spree and concentrated on buying sector-specific issues.

The DSEX, the benchmark index on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), surged by 27.83 points or 0.43 per cent to settle at 6,515, again surpassing the 6,500-mark.

Among the other two major indices, the DS30, the blue-chip index, gained 13.11 points to 2,346 and the DSES, the Shariah-based index, rose 12.02 points to close at 1,429.

Turnover, another important market indicator, stood at Tk 1242.8 crore on the Dhaka bourse, 5 per cent lower than the previous day’s figure of Tk 1307.8 crore.

Large-cap sectors posted mixed performance on the day.

Pharmaceutical booked the highest gain of 1.03 per cent, followed by food & allied (0.08 per cent), and fuel & power (0.08 per cent), while non-bank financial institutions suffered the most with 0.94 per cent loss, followed by bank, telecommunication, and engineering.

Miscellaneous sector dominated the turnover chart grabbing 23.33 per cent of the total turnover.

The equity indices on the premier bourse returned to the green territory after a single-day break amidst volatility throughout the session as bargain hunters went for buying the lucrative sector-specific stocks, said EBL Securities, a stockbroker in its daily market review.

The market witnessed a see-saw trend right from the start of the trading session, while the last-hour buying pressure on some particular stocks helped move the index up, it said.

Out of the 386 issues traded, 123 advanced, 107 declined, and 156 did not see any price movement.

The port city bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also closed higher on the day with CASPI, all share price index, gaining 72.8 points.