BSS, Dhaka :
Dhaka stocks eased up on Sunday, fueled by upbeat trading of mid and lower cap stocks as investors’ preference changed a bit to the issues out of the heavyweight circle.
The bigger and the usual active issues of telecom, engineering, pharmaceuticals and insurance were in down track on the day when investors changed their directions to the issues of lower cap classes and market prices.
“Investors seemed to be hesitant of positioning in large cap stocks because of their recent spike in prices,” IDLC Finance Limited in its daily market update said.
It said investors’ preference changed a bit which was stimulated with the news of positive export growth, especially in textile sector.
The changes assisted textile to lead in sectoral performance with 2.70 percent gain. However, investors appeared hesitant of positioning in large cap stocks because of their recent spike in prices, the investment company said.
The demand for banking shares was remarkably higher that eventually made South East Bank, UCB, SIBL and AB Bank the day’s top five shares by volume of trade. The other most actively trade shares were of Grameen Phone, Lafarge Surma, Heidelberg Cement and Meghna Petroleum.
DSEX, the general index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) seesawed during the entire trading session as investors were awaiting certain director of market after introduction of the new T+2 settlement cycle. The benchmark index, however, managed to cross 4600-point mark at close after struggling below the mark in the last two trading sessions.
The rise in the DGEN was only 0.38 percent or 17.52 points at close when it finished the day at 4616.44. Price rise across the board coupled with increased trade volume helped DSEX finished marginally up, but two other specialised indices ended the day in red on weaker investors’ response to the blue-chips and Sharia- based shares.
The blue-chip DS30 index and Shariah DSES index wrapped up at 1698.56 and 1034.32 respectively.
The number of gaining issues was significantly higher on the day compared to the daily average for the past few weeks when the increase in share prices of the major advancing issues was 7.0 to 9.90 percent.
Share prices of 182 companies settled at higher when 86 companies traded at low and shares of 20 companies changed hands at their previous last quotes.
Agni System was the highest advancing issue with 9.90 percent rise in its share price. The company did not make any price sensitive information in the recent days, but in January it announced a net profit after tax of Taka 2.86 crore for the quarter ending in December 2013.
The other gaining issues were BD Finance, BD Welding, Anlima Yarn and National House Finance and Investment. BD Finance recently recommended 10.0 percent cash dividend when the three other companies announced lower level of quarterly profit.
Phonix Insurance was the leading loser with 7.34 percent fall in its share prices though the company early this month declared 20.0 percent cash dividend for 2013. The other major losing issues were Heidelberg Cement, Delta Life, Beach Hatchary and LRG Global Mutual Fund.
The daily trade volume rose to 8.08 crore shares from Thursday’s 7.72 crore, but the trade value fell to Taka 399.15 crore from Taka 444.08 crore of the last week’s close.
