Stocks finished higher on Thursday, ending flat movement over the last two weeks as investors pinned hope on positive political development and reacted positively to impressive earnings reports by some companies.
The market moved down at the very beginning, but started going up as soon as the news of Prime Minister’s offer for political dialogue spread across the market, analysts said.
After falling 25 points in the morning, the benchmark DSE General Index, DGEN, closed at 3654 with a rise of 36 points or 1%, pulled by telecommunications, engineering and power sectors that soared more than 1% each.
The newly introduced benchmark index, DSEX, rose 29 points or 0.85% to 3468. The DSE30 gained 1.7 points or 0.13% to close at 1284.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index, CSCX, was up 67 points to 6829.
The market participation at the DSE saw a jump with total turnover going up by 25.4% to Tk1.7bn. Of the 272 issues traded, 204 advanced, 54 declined and 14 remained unchanged.
“Despite a gloomy start, market eventually ended positive over improved political scenario and earnings surprises,” said IDLC Investment in its daily market analysis.
“Activity boosted over corporate declarations, both DGEN and DSEX gradually climbed back. In addition, sentiment improved over latest developments in political scenario,” it said.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday invited BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia to sit for a dialogue to resolve the current political impasse, which coupled with the Savar tragedy badly affected the market during last two weeks.
Among the best performing sectors, telecommunications gained highest 1.88%, followed by power 1.57%, engineering 1.53%, financial institutions 0.85% and pharmaceuticals 0.52%.
Micro-caps companies performed better than others. But the market bellwether banks ended slightly lower. Trade was mostly centric on earnings expectations as eight companies out of top 10 turnover list had announcements this week.
Earnings surprises pushed up Golden Son 7.35%, Premier Cement 4.72%, ACI 4.10% and RN Spinning 4.48%. United Airways continued to top the turnover leaders followed by Olympic Industries, Beximco, Titas Gas, Unque Hotel and Resorts, Square Pharma and RN Spinning.