DSE turnover dips below Tk4b-mark

Stocks edged higher for the four straight sessions on Tuesday, but turnover dipped below the 4.0 billion-mark as most of the investors were reluctant to inject fresh funds ahead of Eid vacation.

It was the last trading day before Eid vacation as the trading and official activities on both bourses will remain closed for five days from Wednesday (tomorrow). The market opened with optimistic note, but slowed down later part of the session, eventually ended marginally higher. At the end of the four hours trading, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 4,853.29, gaining 11.67 points or 0.24 per cent.

The two other indices also closed in the green zone. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, rose 4.44 points or 0.24 per cent to finish at 1,860.35. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) gained 3.85 points or 0.32 per cent to end at 1,191.11. Turnover, however, plunged three-week low to Tk3.64 billion, which was 30 per cent lower than the previous session’s one month highest turnover of Tk5.20 billion.

The gainers took a strong lead over the losers as out of 317 issues traded, 179 closed lower, 82 higher and 56 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor. BSRM Steels dominated the day’s turnover chart with shares of Tk203 million changing hands followed by KPCL, BSRM, Lafarge Surma Cement and United Airways. Aex Spinning was the day’s best performer, posting a rise of 9.21 per cent while Beach Hatchery was the day’s worst loser, plunging by 13.59 following its corporate declaration of 5.0 per cent stock dividend.

The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also closed higher with its Selective Categories Index CSCX gained 36.11 points to end at 9,054.21. Gainers beat losers 137 to 74, with 36 issues remained unchanged on the port city bourse that traded 8.44 million shares and mutual fund units with a value of Tk300 million. -FE