Business Desk :
Stocks soared on Tuesday, defeating worries of the seven-day strict-lockdown, as bargain hunters continued to put fresh bets on low-priced lucrative issues.
The stock market will remain shut during the countrywide strict lockdown beginning from today (Wednesday) as banks will remain closed during the period.
Following the previous day’s marginal rise, the market opened lower and the key index of the major bourse fell 14 points within the first 30 minutes of trading. However, the rest of the session went up steadily.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 70.22 points or 1.35 per cent to settle at 5,258, after gaining more than 23 points in the previous day.
Market operators said the bargain hunters took advantage of low priced securities of some large-cap issues which helped the market closed higher.
Lucrative price levels of many stocks coupled with lowered the circuit breaker limit to 2.0 per cent from the existing 10 per cent for 66 companies also encouraged investors, they said.
The market rallied, beating worries of the forthcoming strict-lockdown, as investors’ positive gesture supported the upward drive, commented EBL Securities, in its regular market analysis.
Two other indices also closed higher with the DSE30 Index, comprising blue chips, rose 36.82 points to finish at 1,997 and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) soared 15.60 points to close at 1,198.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, also rose to Tk 5.12 billion, which was 3.64 per cent higher than the previous day’s turnover of Tk 4.94 billion.
Major sectors posted gain with the cement sector saw the highest gain of 3.80 per cent, followed by financial institutions with 2.50 per cent, telecom 2.12 per cent, engineering 2.10 per cent, pharma 1.30 per cent and banking 1.10 per cent.
Gainers took a strong lead over the losers, as out of 347 issues traded, 228 advanced, 63 declined and 56 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Beximco – the flagship company of Beximco Group- was the most- traded stock with shares worth about Tk 409 million changing hands, followed by BD Finance, Robi, Central Insurance and Continental Insurance.
Dhaka Insurance was the day’s top gainer, posting a 9.97 per cent gain while Premier Bank was the worst loser, losing 15.55 per cent following its price adjustment after the record date. A total number of 103,896 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with a trading volume of 146.49 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of DSE also rose to Tk 4,585 billion on Tuesday, up from Tk 4,522 billion in the previous session.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended higher with the CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI -soaring 185 points to settle at 15,194 and the Selective Categories Index – CSCX rising 112 points to close at 9,167.
Of the issues traded, 124 advanced, 62 declined and 28 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city’s bourse traded 6.48 million shares and mutual fund units with a turnover value of Tk 256 million.
