Stocks closed higher yesterday, shrugging off rising political tension in the country.
The market began on positive note and the momentum continued till close of the day. In the previous session, the market ended lower due to panic-driven selling spree.
The benchmark index, DSEX, soared 43 points or 0.8% to 4,969, which is nearly one-month high.
The Shariah index, DSES, rose 10 points or 0.9% to 1,186. The comprising blue chips DS30 gained 14 points or 0.8% to 1,859.
Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, was up 77 points to close at 9,208.
Turnover value crossed Tk300-crore mark after four weeks and stood at Tk319 crore, registering an increase of over 56% over the previous session.
“Risk-averse investors still stepped back from betting on stocks but on the other hand, optimistic investors swooped on stocks taking advantage of lower share prices despite political turmoil,” said a stock broker.
However, he said this rise might not be sustainable taking overall situation into account. “It has recently been noticed that every hartal day, market has tendency to scale up,” he said.
All the major sectors ended in green with power rising highest over 2%. Banks and, food and allied, sectors advanced around 1% each.
Pharmaceuticals, non-banking financial institutions and telecommunication closed marginally higher.
IDLC Investments said despite the gloomy political situation, broad market turned around amid improved turnover and institutional participation. On the macro front, increased flow of remittance signalled additional comfort in foreign reserve, it said.
Lanka Bangla Securities said market ended on green zone after a stellar rally.
“Fear in investors mind about the political unrest in past three days and panic sell-off formed scope for value seekers to flow fund in equity market.”
Gainers beat losers as out of 309 issues traded, 191 advanced, 74 declined and 44 remained unchanged.
Lafarge Surma Cement was the most traded stock for the third consecutive day with shares worth Tk17.7 crore changing hands, followed by DESCO, Agni Systems, RSRM Steels and Beximco Pharma.
Shahzibazar Power Company was the day’s top gainers, positing a rise of almost 10% while Northern Jute Manufacturing Company was the worst loser, plunging over 8%.
