Dhaka stocks end the week in positive note

The country’s prime bourse, Dhaka Stock Exchange, closed green on Thursday with its key index, the DSEX, gaining 6.87 points, or 0.11 per cent, and closing at 6,220.24 as investors bought sector-specific issues in anticipation of quick gains.

DSE’s blue-chip index, DS30, was up by 0.16 per cent and the Shariah-based index, DSES, rose 0.23 per cent closing at 2,218.76, and 1,356.85 points respectively.

Turnover decreased by 20.29 per cent to Tk 484 crore. The pharmaceuticals sector dominated the charts covering 16.01 per cent of the total turnover.

Market insiders said that buyers dominated the market since the recent corrections created investment opportunities for quick gains while focused investors who perceived some sector-specific issues traded at a lucrative price level.

The benchmark index of the capital bourse managed to end the week staying afloat in the green territory due to investors’ interest in buying sector-specific issues in anticipation of quick gains, EBL Securities said in its daily market review on Thursday.

This week, the DSE’s downtrend was due to dominant profit-booking sell pressure across the bourse as cautious investors opted to secure their short-term gains from the market owing to the uncertainty of the economy.

The market was downbeat throughout Thursday’s session, with the majority of scrips experiencing corrections due to selling dominance prevailing across the bourse since the market has yet to experience a major trigger to return to consistent positive momentum.

On the sectoral front, pharma (18.4per cent) issues exerted the highest turnover, followed by life insurance (14.2per cent) and IT (12.2per cent) stocks.

Almost all the sectors displayed mixed returns, out of which paper (3.1per cent), travel (2.2per cent) and services (1.5per cent) exhibited the most positive returns, while life insurance (-2.1per cent) and food (-0.5per cent) exerted the most corrections.

At the premier bourse, out of the 391 issues traded, 50 advanced, 56 declined and 285 remained unchanged.

Monno Agro made the highest gain with an increase of 5.2 per cent. Meghna Life Insurance was the biggest loser, falling by 5.8 per cent.

The port city bourse, CSE, also settled on green terrain. The selected indices CSCX and all share price index CASPI edged up by 1.9 and 3.2 points respectively.