Stocks rise slightly amid selloffs

The indices of both stock exchanges increased slightly on Wednesday as investors' buying appetite for selective stocks offset efforts to sell off.

DSEX, the broad index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), edged up by 2 points and settled at 6,293 compared to 6,291 in the previous trading session.

The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also settled on green terrain. The selected indices (CSCX) and All Share Price Index (CASPI) gained 5.9 and 9.2 points to 11,128 and 18,614, respectively.

EBL Securities said in its daily market review that investors were active on both sides of the trading fence, causing the core index to observe a mere flat movement since risk-averse investors continued their cautious selling approach to secure their short-term gains from the continuously volatile market, while some opportunistic investors chased selective scrips in anticipation of quick gains.

Meanwhile, trading activities remained sluggish as market turnover increased slightly, rising by 5.6% to Tk413 crore compared to Tk391 crore in the previous session.

On the sectoral front, food issues exerted the highest turnover of 24.3%, followed by miscellaneous at 12.1% and engineering at 7.0%.

The top six companies grabbed 33% of the DSE total turnover, where Fu-Wang Food was the top traded share on the premium bourse, which was followed by Khan Brothers PP Woven, Sea Pearl, and Rupali Life Insurance.

Most of the sectors displayed mixed returns, out of which travel (1.8%), IT (0.9%), and general insurance (0.6%) exhibited the most positive returns on the Dhaka bourse, while jute (-0.5%), services (-0.4%), and miscellaneous (-0.2%) exerted the most corrections.

Out of the 392 issues traded, 73 advanced, 74 declined, and 245 remained unchanged.

Daffodil Computer secured the top position on the gainers table by changing the price to 9.95% on the Dhaka bourse. The other gainers are Central Pharma, Khulna Printing, and Khan Brothers PP Woven.

Bangladesh Monospool Paper was the worst share on Wednesday, as its share price fell by 2.46% to Tk257.1 each.