BBN file photo

Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– The first trading session of the New Year ended higher on Tuesday as investors showed their buying appetite on selective large-cap stocks.

Analysts said investors were active on sector specific issues amid new hope in the New Year 2019 as the national elections held almost peacefully.

Trading opened on bourses Tuesday after four-day vacation on due to national elections, bank holiday and weekly holidays.

Following the last seven consecutive sessions’ gain before the national elections, the bourse started on positive note on Tuesday and the upward trend continued till end of the session.

At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), crossed the 5,400-mark to settle at 5,465, after soaring 79.61 points or 1.47 percent.

The two other indices ended higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 27.41 points to finish at 1,908 and the DSES (Shariah) index soared 12.98 points to settle at 1,245.

Trading activities, however, remained low as total turnover amounting to BDT 5.30 billion, which was 1.48 percent lower than the previous day’s BDT 5.38 billion.

A total number of 136,917 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 153.04 million shares and mutual fund units.

The market cap of DSE increased to BDT 3,912 billion which was BDT 3,872 billion in the previous day.

The gainers took a strong lead over the losers as out of 341 issues traded, 264 closed higher, 54 ended lower and 23 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.

BBS Cables topped the day’s turnover chart with shares worth BDT 313 million changing hands, closely followed by Paramount Textile, Beximco, IFAD Autos and Khulna Power Company.

ML Dyeing was the day’s best performer, posting a gain of 9.76 percent while National Life Insurance was the day’s worst loser, shedding 6.19 percent.

The port city bourse CSE ended higher with the CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI – gaining 281 points to settle at 16,730 while the Selective Categories Index – CSCX –advancing 167 points to finish at 10,115.

Here too, the gainers beat the losers as 198 issues closed higher, 39 ended higher and 11 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse traded 10.70 million shares and mutual fund units worth BDT 245 million in turnover.

BBN/SSR/SR