Stocks return to green

Dhaka stocks returned to the green territory following a downtrend in the last two consecutive sessions as bargain hunters took positions on lucrative sector-specific stocks, taking advantage of the recent corrections in the market.

The DSEX, the broad index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), advanced by 20.2 points or 0.3 per cent and settled at 6,328 points as against 6,308 points in the previous trading session.

Among other indices, the DSES, the Shariah-based index, marginally advanced by 5.8 points to close at 1,390, and the DS30, the blue-chip index, dropped 1.6 points to 2,243.

Meanwhile, the total turnover rose by 86.3 per cent and stood at Tk 623.5 crore since a sudden suspension in trading caused by some technical glitch led the market turnover to fall to Tk 334.7 crore in the previous session.

The market started on a positive note, adding nearly 50 points within the first 2 hours of the session, while subsequent selling pressures exerted by cautious investors stalled the uptrend, said EBL Securities, a stockbroker, in its daily market review.

Following the possibility that the issue related to buying stocks before check encashment would be resolved soon, investors opted to take positions on selective stocks that were trading at a lucrative price level, commented EBL Securities.

However, a portion of investors are still concerned regarding the market outlook due to the macroeconomic adversities, as well as the majority of scrips being stuck at the floor price, it added.

On the sectoral front, miscellaneous topped the turnover chart with a contribution of 17.9 per cent to the total turnover, followed by pharma and chemicals (17 per cent) and engineering (14.6 per cent) stocks.

Almost all the sectors displayed positive returns on the Dhaka bourse.

Of them, the jute sector posted the highest return of 6.5 per cent followed by IT (4.2 per cent) and travel (3.6 per cent).

On the other hand, only the miscellaneous sector suffered with a loss of 0.3 per cent. Out of the 388 issues traded on the DSE, 87 issues advanced, 20 declined and 281 did not see any price movement.

The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also settled on the green terrain with its two major indices — the selective categories Index (CSCX) and the all share price index (CASPI) — advancing by 11.7 points and 20.2 points respectively.