Dhaka stocks rose for the third day on Thursday and witnessed a surge in turnover, as bargain hunters went for low-priced scrips hoping for short term gains, market operators said.
The total turnover on the Dhaka Stock Exchange crossed the Tk 700 crore mark on the day after one and a half months.
Before Thursday, the bourse posted more than Tk 700 crore in the turnover on May 13 at Tk 968.02 crore. On Wednesday, the turnover was at Tk 605.12 crore.
DSEX, the key index of the DSE, increased by 52.68 points, or 0.99 per cent, to close at 5,355.41 points on the day after gaining 60.88 points in the previous trading session.
The DSE added a total of 135.23 points in the past three days.
The key index witnessed a sharp spike at the start of the session, but fell slightly after one hour, but the index rebounded almost instantly and maintained the positive trend until the end of the session to conclude in the positive trajectory, market operators said.
They said that the large capitalised scrips contributed the most to the indices to advance.
The market recovery was aided by price appreciation in the majority of stocks following the prolonged bearish vibe on the market amid economic worries, market operators said.
In the past 18 weeks, the DSE moved forward in only four weeks.
Of the 401 issues traded on Thursday, 246 advanced, 99 declined and 56 remained unchanged.
The DSE Shariah index increased by 17.68 points, or 1.51 per cent, to close at 1,183.51 points on the day.
The DS30 index gained 18.73 points, or 0.98 per cent, to finish at 1,922.56 points.
On the sectoral front, pharmaceutical issues exerted the highest turnover, followed by the food and general insurance shares.
EBL Securities in its daily commentary said, ‘Investors seeking tax benefits opted to grab the last moment opportunity of availing tax rebates from secondary market investments that also contributed to the recent increase in market participation.’
Pubali Bank topped the turnover chart on the day with its shares worth Tk 37.45 crore changing hands.
Unilever Consumer Care, City General Insurance, British American Tobacco Bangladesh, Renata, Square Pharmaceuticals, Alif Industries, Rupali Life Insurance, Capitec Grameen Bank Growth Fund and Peoples Insurance were the other turnover leaders.