Dhaka stocks rose on Thursday as some bargain hunters stepped in following two days of slides, keeping the fears of another debacle at bay for the time being.
The benchmark general index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DGEN, gained 50.18 points, or 0.81 per cent, to close the day at 6,212.86 points after the DGEN had shed 61.12 points in two previous turbulent trading sessions.
Turnover of the bourse rose to Tk 535.90 crore, compared to that of Tk 446.96 crore in the previous day, but still remained much lower than the average daily turnover in the last week of July.
‘Some investors might have gone for buying relatively low priced shares on the day after last two days of fall,’ said Saifur Islam, chief executive officer of BRAC EPL Stock Brokerage Ltd.
Market operators said Wednesday’s not-so-big-fall also encouraged some investors not to go for panic-driven sell-offs on Thursday.
Bank issues, the most weighted sector of the Dhaka bourse, gained on the day which impacted overall rise of the market, they said.
‘The turnover volume is still very insignificant and proved inactivity of the institutional investors,’ said a stockbroker.
He, however, said the market would perhaps slow down in the coming days as the big market players started going abroad for performing Omrah or for Eid shopping.
‘It is a seasonal trend of the market as big players used to go for Omrah in Ramadan, which usually starts from the middle of the month,’ he said.
In the last two sessions, the index lost 61.12 and the turnover dropped to Tk 446.96 crore as large institutional investors continued to sit on the fence.
General investors continued to remain panicked fearing another round of debacle as the market was going through a bear run from the end of July.
The latest bear run started with a market correction following poor corporate disclosures made by a number of listed companies and the tight monetary policy adopted by Bangladesh Bank also prompted the fall of the market at that time.
The situation worsened after the announcement made by the SEC that it would take legal action against market manipulators triggering a rumour of large-scale disinvestment by the big fishes.
Of the 258 issues traded on Thursday, 184 advanced, 66 declined and eight remained unchanged.
Fu Wang Food topped the day’s turnover leaders with its share worth Tk 23.91 crore changing hands. The rest on the top-10 list were Grameenphone, Beximco, MJL Bangladesh, United Airways, City Bank Ltd, Malek Spinning Mills, Lafarge Surma Cement, Aims 1st Mutual Fund and Square Pharma Ltd.
Federal Insurance was the leading gainer on Wednesday posting a 6.31 per cent rise following the approval of the enhancement of the rights issue offer at a rate of 2R: 1, of 2,51,32,216 shares instead of 2,24,39,480 shares as the company distributed 12 per cent stock dividend.
-With New Age input
