Stocks rally for 2nd day

Stocks gained for the second consecutive session on Sunday, driven by food, telecom, engineering and banking issues.

The market opened on a positive note in the morning and continued to climb steadily at the close.

The benchmark index, DSEX, rose over 68 points or 1.24 percent to 5,584.

The Shariah-based index DSES closed at 1,256, gaining over 7 points or 0.63 percent and the blue-chip index DS30 surged over 43 points or 2 percent to 2,156.

Out of 30 listed banks, prices of 21 closed positive, two negative and seven remained unchanged.

The heavyweight banking sector rose 1.6 percent, led by Dutch Bangla Bank that soared over 6 percent after it declared 15 percent cash and 15 percent stock dividend for the year ended 2020. It was the fourth-largest gainer on the day.

Among major sectors, cement, food and allied and services and real estate sectors ended higher while mutual fund, IT and ceramics sectors declined.

LafargeHolcim hit almost the upper limit circuit breaker at 9.5 percent, making it the best performer of the day. BATBC was the second-best gainer with a rally of more than 7 percent.

Participation in trading increased as turnover stood at Tk 876.75 crore, a rise of nearly 25 percent over the previous session.

British American Tobacco Company Bangladesh (BATBC) was the most traded stock with shares worth Tk 115.70 crore, accounting for more than 13 percent of the total turnover.

It was followed by Lafarge Holcim Bangladesh, Summit Power, Robi, Beximco Ltd, GBB Power, Beximco Pharmaceuticals, and Lanka Bangla Finance.

Vanguard AML Rupali Bank Balanced Fund was the worst loser plunging over 9 percent, followed by CAN Textile, BIFC, ILFSL, Premier Leasing, and Daffodil Computer.