Stocks return to black after three days in red

Stocks broke a three-day losing streak to return to the black yesterday, riding on investors' buying into large-cap firms.

DSEX, the benchmark general index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, gained 23 points or 0.52 percent, to close at 4,564.

The shariah index of the Dhaka bourse, closed at 1,063 points after gaining 2.87 points or 0.27 percent.

Recent momentum in multinational companies and fast-moving consumer goods continued to support markets following the uptrend witnessed throughout much of the past two weeks, said LankaBangla Securities.

Momentum indicates that investors are monitoring reports on existing fundamental stocks, leading economic indicators, and manufacturing activities, the stockbroker said.

Among the major industry news, Bangladesh Bank has drafted a guideline on risk-based capital adequacy ratio to implement Basel-III from next year by raising scheduled banks' capital bases, it added.

Banks will have to implement the new guideline on capital arrangement in five years.

Under the guideline, banks will have to raise their capital to 12.50 percent against their risk-weighted assets by 2019 from the existing 10 percent.

Investors continued to accumulate large-cap stocks, said IDLC Investments.

The strong turnover in last few weeks shows investors' growing interest and consequent fresh money injection, the investment banker said.

Turnover, the most important indicator of the market, declined 4.18 percent to Tk 707 crore, compared to the previous day.

Gainers beat losers by 155 to 117, while 23 remained unchanged on the DSE.

Beximco was the most liquid stock with 1.13 crore shares worth Tk 47 crore changing hands, followed by MJL Bangladesh, BSRM Steels, Lafarge Surma Cement and Square Pharma.

Summit Alliance Port was the highest gainer of the day, posting a 9.5 percent gain, while Pragati Life Insurance was the worst loser, slumping by 31 percent.