Stocks rise for second day

The stock market in Bangladesh rose for a second consecutive day yesterday as investors made cautious purchases of lucrative blue-chip shares hoping for corporate companies to soon make healthy earnings disclosures.

Islami Bank Bangladesh, Beacon Pharmaceuticals, Grameenphone, Olympic Industries, British American Tobacco Bangladesh, Heidelberg Chemicals Bangladesh, ACME Laboratory, Robi Axiata, Uttara Bank and Tamijul Textile Mills drew a significant number of investors, according to LankaBangla Financial Portal.

Islami Bank Bangladesh is the only lender which logged a double-digit growth, meaning of 25.19 percent, in share prices.

However, shares of Khan Brothers PP Woven Bag Industries, Beximco Pharmaceuticals, Orion Infusion, Bangladesh Submarine Cables, City Bank, United Commercial Bank, National Bank, Kohinoor Chemicals, Power Grid Company of Bangladesh and IFIC Bank suffered losses.

The DSEX, the benchmark index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), rose by 17.57 points, or 0.30 percent, from that on the day prior to close at 5,777.

Similarly, the DSES index, representing the Shariah-based companies, edged up by 14.30 points, or 1.12 percent, or 1,288.

Meanwhile, the DS30 index for the blue-chip firms grew by 12.45 points, or 0.59 percent, to 2,109.

Out of 395 issues, prices of 93 rose while most of the remaining 262 closed lower and 40 did not witness any price swings.

Turnover at the DSE, meaning the total value of shares traded on the day, increased by 6.56 percent to Tk 718 crore.

Grameenphone topped the turnover chart accounting for Tk 60 crore, which was a rise of 1.93 percent. It was followed by BRAC Bank, Linde Bangladesh and IBN Sina.

Block trades, meaning high-volume securities transactions that are privately negotiated and executed outside of the open market, amounted to Tk 13.34 crore, representing 1.9 percent of the day's total turnover.

In its daily market update, BRAC EPL Stock Brokerage said sectors that account for large amounts in market capitalisation, which is the total value of a company's outstanding shares, posted a mixed performance.

Telecommunication clocked the highest gain of 1.54 percent, followed by food and allied (1.03 percent), banking (0.09 percent) and pharmaceuticals (0.07 percent).

However, fuel and power, engineering and non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) suffered losses of 1.03 percent, 1.06 percent and 1.49 percent respectively.

However, travel and leisure, paper and printing, and financial institutions ended in the negative, according to the day's market update by Shanta Securities.

In case of individual stocks, Hami Industries took the top spot on the gainers' list followed by Dhaka Electric Supply Company, Fareast Finance & Investment, Desh Garments, Tosrifa Industries and Sunlife Insurance Company.

However, Standard Ceramic Industries shed the most, losing 3.76 percent.

Phoenix Finance and Investments, Sunlife Insurance Company, Tosrifa Industries, Apex Spinning & Knitting Mills and Rahim Textile Mills also saw no gains.