Stocks rebound riding on power issues

Stocks rebounded on Tuesday, after a single-day break, as some investors showed their buying appetite on sector specific issues.

DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, settled at 5,258, advancing 19.52 points or 0.37 per cent over the previous day.

The market started on positive note and the core index rose about 26 points within first hour of trading. But later it eroded some of the early gains.

Market operators said lucrative price levels coupled with positive support from state-run Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) helped the market to edge higher.

"Buying pressure was visible on sector-specific stocks like power, pharmaceuticals and telecommunication sectors," said a leading broker.

Accordingly, the power posted the highest gain of 2.97 per cent, followed by pharmaceuticals 0.91 per cent, telecommunication 0.36 per cent.

"This upward shift in the index is mainly driven by significant positive changes in most of the large-cap sectors, particularly power," commented LankaBangla Securities in its regular market analysis.

Two other indices-the DS30 index and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES)-also edged higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 11.31 points to finish at 1,866 and the DSE Shariah Index rose 10.67 points to close at 1,213.

International Leasing Securities said, the investors took position on large-cap stocks especially from power, pharma, telecom and cement sectors which helped the benchmark index to close in green.

However, the cautious investors reshuffled their portfolios in engineering, food and financial institution sectors stocks, said the stockbroker.

Turnover, another important indicator of the market, also rose slightly and total turnover amounted to Tk 5.31 billion, which was 2.50 per cent higher than the previous day's Tk 5.18 billion.

Textile sector continue to dominate the turnover chart, grabbing 22 per cent of the day's total turnover, followed by power with 16 per cent and pharmaceuticals 13 per cent.

The engineering experienced highest loss of 0.46 per cent, followed by food with 0.12 per cent and financial institutions 0.11 per cent.

The losers, however, took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 336 issues traded, 140 closed lower, 135 lower and 61 securities unchanged on the premier bourse.

A total number of 128,056 trades were executed in the day's trading session on the DSE with trading volume of 120.95 million securities.

The market capitalisation of the DSE also rose to Tk 3,817 billion on the day which was Tk 3,799 billion in the previous session.

United Power dominated the DSE turnover chart with 1.18 million shares worth Tk 347 million changing hands.

The other turnover leaders were Shepherd Industries, Monno Ceramic Industries, SK Trims Industries and Saiham Cotton Mills.

The low-cap companies continued to dominate the gainers chart while Orion Infusion was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 9.92 per cent while Beximco Synthetics was the worst loser, losing 8.57 per cent.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) ended slightly higher with its CSE All Share Price Index-CASPI-gaining2.63 points to settle at 16,077 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -advancing 4.74 points to finish at 9,739.

The losers beat gainers as 126 issues closed lower, 77 ended higher, with 27 issues remaining unchanged on the CSE.

The port city bourse traded 8.11 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 256 million in turnover.

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