Business Desk :
Stocks ended slightly higher on Monday after a volatile trading as investors mostly followed a cautious stance ahead of the biggest-ever IPO subscription – Robi Axiata.
DSEX, the prime index of the DSE, went up by 3.68 points or 0.07 per cent to settle at 4,871, after losing more than 37 points in the previous session.
Market analysts said many investors disposed of shares of other companies to apply for forthcoming initial public offerings which kept the market slow for the past few sessions.
However, the bargain hunters were active on stocks which declared satisfactory earnings while some rebalanced their portfolio based on the latest corporate declarations.
Two other indices also edged up. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, saw a fractional gain of 0.27 point to finish at 1,696 and the DSE Shariah Index rose 8.37 points to close at 1,122.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, slumped to Tk 7.90 billion, which was 34 per cent lower than the previous day’s turnover of Tk 11.98 billion.
Losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 350 issues traded, 153 ended lower, 111 closed higher and 86 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 152,545 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with a trading volume of 425.55 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market capitalisation of DSE also fell to Tk 3,954 billion on Monday, from Tk 3,960 billion in the previous session. Beximco Pharma continued to dominate the turnover chart with 3.25 million shares worth Tk 456 million changing hands, followed by Square Pharma, Asia Insurance, AB Bank First Mutual Fund and Eastern Insurance.
