Stocks end higher on Grameen debut

Dhaka stocks closed higher yesterday amid downturn in turnover with Scheme Two of Grameen One mutual fund leading gains on its debut.
The Scheme Two of Grameen One mutual fund (Grameens2) grew over four times to Tk 43 from its book value of Tk 10 each, powered by buying pressure.
The fund constituted 11 percent of the day's total turnover on the bourse, with 77 lakh shares changing hands out of its floated shares of 125,000,000.
Grameen1 mutual fund however lost 1.54 percent to Tk 95.90.
Heavy buying into the shares of Titas Gas, a market heavyweight, injected additional vigour into the market to help remain upbeat for a ninth day.
Banks continued their losing streak. Profit-taking led many of the previous-day gainers such as non-banking financial institutions and some pharmaceuticals issues -- Beximco Pharmaceuticals and ACI -- to end lower.
The market opened higher in the initial hour of the beginning and fluctuated for the rest of trade hours.
Losers beat gainers 125 to 91. Some 12 issues remained unchanged.
The benchmark DSE General Index finished 10.61 points, or over 0.38 percent higher at 2,831.40. The DSE All Share Price Index increased 8.57 points, or 0.35 percent to 2,416 points. The blue-chip DSE-20 index however ended 18.80 points, or 0.76 percent lower at 2434.23.
Turnover on the bourse dipped about 19 percent to Tk 271.57 crore from Tk 335.14 crore.
Scheme Two of Grameen One MF ruled the market in turnover followed by Titas Gas, ACI, ICB 2nd NRB MF and Islami Bank.
Titas continued its rally and added 0.88 percent to Tk 428.
ACI slumped 0.87 percent to Tk 520.10 amid profit-taking. ICB 2nd NRB mutual fund added 1.67 percent to Tk 182.25. Islami Bank lost 1.66 percent to Tk 7,440.25.
All the indices on the Chittagong Stock Exchange finished lower as investors cashed in on previous-day gains. Turnover also dropped to Tk 30.86 crore from Tk 45.21 crore.
Of the issues traded on the CSE, 47 gained, 80 lost and two closed stable.