Retailers trade at Dhaka Stock Exchange office. BBN file photo

Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– Bangladesh’s stocks maintained the upward trend for the third day in a row on Sunday as optimistic investors are buying mode amid positive expectation.

Stocks kept gaining as the enthusiastic buyers continued their buying appetite on large-cap stocks, taking the prime index above 5,300-mark once again, according to experts.

They also said the investors became active on the market for taking fresh position in sector specific stocks considering favourable price level.

Continuing the previous day’s gaining streak, the market started with a flying note and remained vibrant throughout the session amid strong buying pressure from the investors.

At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 108 points or 2.04 per cent to settle at 5,394.

Two other indices also ended higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 31 points to finish at 1,901 and the DSE Shariah Index rose 15.63 points to close at 1,240.

Turnover, another important indicator of the market, also crossed BDT 5.0 billion-mark after nearly two months and amounted to BDT 5.35 billion, which was 12.6 per cent higher than the previous day’s turnover of BDT 4.75 billion.

The bourse witnessed massive buying pressure from the beginning, especially on food, bank, financial institutions, engineering and power sectors stocks, which sustained throughout the session.

All the large cap sectors posted positive performance with food sector posted the highest gain of 4.25 per cent, followed by non-bank financial institutions with 3.49 per cent, engineering 2.64 per cent, banking 2.45 per cent, power 2.17 per cent, telecommunication 1.10 per cent and pharmaceuticals 0.65 per cent.

The gainers took a strong lead over the losers as out of 345 issues traded, 292 advanced, 38 declined and 15 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.

A total number of 147,668 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 156.60 million securities.

The market capitalisation of the DSE also rose to BDT 3,961 billion on Sunday, from BDT 3,888 billion in the previous session.

Bangladesh Shipping Corporation topped the turnover chart with 3.94 million shares worth nearly BDT 199 million changing hands.

The other turnover leaders were National Tubes, Fortune Shoes, Monno Ceramic and United Power.
Familytex (BD) was the day’s best performer, posting a gain of 10 per cent while Standard Ceramic was the worst loser, losing 7.77 per cent.

On the other hand, Chittagong Stock Exchange also ended higher with its CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI -soaring 342 points to settle at 16,503 and the Selective Categories Index – CSCX -jumping 205 points to finish at 9,988.

The gainers beat losers, as 217 issues closed higher, 32 ended lower and 10 remained unchanged on the CSE trading floor.

The port city bourse traded 10.22 million shares and mutual fund units worth BDT 283 million in turnover.

BBN/SSR/AD