Stocks gain amid increased buying appetite

Investors were mainly interested in buying pharmaceuticals stocks with solid fundamentals, undervalued banking stocks and some other from different sectors

Stocks at Dhaka and Chattogram stock exchanges gained on Monday as there appeared to be some more buyers than the previous session.

Brokerage firm United Securities said the central bank’s declaration to inject liquidity into the money market through buying treasury instruments from commercial banks has helped increase investors’ confidence a bit.

DSEX, the benchmark index at the capital city bourse, gained 0.62 percent to close at 3,984 points.

Blue-chip index DS30 and Shariah-compliant securities’ index DSES gained less.

“Over the session, we observed an increase in buy orders compared to the previous session. Unlike Sunday, many buyers opted to bid for nearly one-fourth scrips at a price above the special floor recently imposed by the regulator,” informed a stock trader at a top brokerage firm.

The increased appetite has helped the market turnovers regain a bit on Monday .

The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) saw its daily turnover at Tk254 crore from Tk145 crore in the previous session, while Chattogram Stock Exchange (CSE) traded securities worth Tk5.91 crore, up from Sunday’s Tk5.55 crore.

CSCX, the broad-based index at the port-city bourse, gained over 0.7 percent to close at 6,827, while its blue-chip index CSE30 was up 0.32 percent.

“Buying appetite did not increase for all the scrips. Institutional investors opted in with their own risk and reward calculations, while a number of individual investors tried to play on the floor price,” said an equity analyst at a brokerage firm.

At the end of the trading session in the DSE, 97 scrips gained price, 47 lost and price of 208 securities remained unchanged despite having been traded several times.

Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) on last Thursday set a minimum price for individual scrips for an indefinite period to cap the extreme fall in market.

It said prices cannot go below five-day average of closing prices prior to March 19. As almost all the listed company shares had a sharp fall over the five sessions, the average – the floor prices – went up from the usual price.

Two sessions of reluctance, mainly of buyers and in some cases of sellers, have followed through with lower trading volume.

However, liquidity – the ease of buying and selling – improved slightly.

Investors were mainly interested in buying pharmaceuticals stocks with solid fundamentals, undervalued banking stocks and some other from different sectors, informed brokerage professionals.

Chemicals, banks, consumer goods, IT and construction material companies had the highest gain on Monday, while cement, ceramic, plastics and packaging, textile and spinning stocks suffered largest losses on average.