Stocks start a slow day after vacation

Stock trading resumed yesterday with a marginal fall in the key index after a nine-day vacation for the Eid festival and weekly holidays.

DSEX, the benchmark index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, declined only 6.54 points or 0.14 percent to finish the first day of the week at 4,420.61 points. DSES, the shariah index of the premier bourse, rose 3.59 points or 0.35 percent to close at 1,008.25.

“The fleet of half-yearly earnings and disclosed monetary policy statement prompted investors to focus on re-balancing portfolio in the first session after Eid-ul-Fitr,” IDLC Investments said.

“Volatility surged from the very beginning of the day's trading with 57 scrips changing more than 3 percent of their respective prices,” the merchant bank said.

Lankabangla Securities said the market opened with mixed participation in trading. “Investors were sent on a wild ride all the day, as the benchmark index zigzagged up and down,” it said.

A few large-cap stocks that gained before the vacation were butchered by heavy sell-offs, it said. “However, some other stocks gained owing to positive returns in quarterly earnings.”

The search for lucrative securities attracted some fresh funds, boosting overall participation, and total turnover rose 26.26 percent to Tk 428.70 crore.

Gainers and losers were equal with 128 securities in each account, while 39 issues remained unchanged out of the 295 issues that traded on the DSE.

Among the major sectors, cement gained 3.3 percent, fuel and power 1.5 percent, textile 1.8 percent and telecom 1.7 percent. A total of 0.91 lakh trades were executed with 10.05 crore shares and mutual fund units changing hands on the Dhaka bourse.

Beximco dominated the turnover chart with 1.6 crore shares worth Tk 52.72 crore changing hands, followed by Grameenphone, ACI, Padma Oil and Peninsula Chittagong.

Shahjibazar Power was the day's best performer, advancing 9.88 percent, while Beximco was the worst loser, slumping 8.63 percent.