DSE turnover crosses Tk 2,000cr mark

The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) turnover crossed Tk 2,000-crore mark for the first time in four months, as some investors found the stock market as an ideal place to invest in during the pandemic.

The turnover stood at over Tk 2,099 crore on Wednesday. The figure is more than 22% higher than the previous day’s Tk 1,719 crore and the highest since January 17 this year when it was Tk2,384 crore. Block trades contributed 3.3% of the overall market turnover.

“Some investors started to bet on stocks finding no alternative investment options during the pandemic, contributing to the rise of volume of trade,” said an analyst at an investment bank.

Institutional investors were significantly active in trading and small investors joined them, he said.

Financial stocks were the center of attraction, pushing the indices to rally.

The benchmark index DSEX added almost 44 points or 0.75% to close at 5,873. The blue-chip index DS30 rose 0.28% or 6 points to 1,282 and the Shariah-based index DSES was up 0.10% or 1.27 points to 1,282.

Banking stocks extended their winning streak over the last few sessions, booking the highest gain of 2.91% led by Southeast Bank nearly touching the upper limit circuit breaker at 9.92%. The bank was the 4th biggest gainer of the day.

The NBFI sector surged 2.60%, driven by Premier Leasing hitting the upper limit circuit breaker at 10%. The financial institution was the biggest gainer.

The low-cap insurance sector continued to move forward, driven by Provati Insurance nearly hitting the upper limit circuit breaker at 9.94%.

Profit-booking selling pressure was observed in the engineering sector that suffered the highest fall of 1.34%, followed by food and allied (-1.19%), telecommunication (-0.74%), and pharmaceutical (-0.69).