Monday World Business News

Dhaka stocks open week upbeat Staff Correspondent
Dhaka stocks gained on Sunday, opening day of the week, mainly due to significant rise in share prices of a number of blue chips securities, said market operators. The general index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange gained 11.22 points or 0.38 per cent to close at 2993.21 while its blue chips index, DSE20, advanced by 45.43 points or 1.75 per cent to finish at 2638.99. A DSE stock broker said blue chips pulled up the market. Market witnessed buying of institutional investors who purchased shares to avail lower prices of the securities after downtrend in recent weeks, he said. Market lost steams in last four weeks as investors remained unnerved due to the Securities and Exchange Commission decision barring closed-end mutual funds from increasing their sizes through issuing bonus or right shares and the DSE’s market cooling measures. Blue chip major Square Pharmaceuticals gained 4.29 per cent to close at Tk 5424.75 on Sunday. Of the total 232 issues traded at the DSE, 124 advanced, 99 declined and nine remained unchanged. Turnover at the DSE, however, decreased to Tk 313.20 crore from the Thursday’s Tk 327.38 crore. Beximco Pharmaceuticals topped the turnover leaders with total transaction of Tk 25.27 crore. Square Pharmaceuticals, Apex Adelchi Footwear, ACI, Keya Cosmetics, LankaBangla Finance, Beximco, BOC, Square Textiles and Lafarge Surma Cement, were also among the top ten turnover leaders. Chittagong Stock Exchange selective categories index gained 91.85 points or 1.58 per cent to close at 8196.23 while its blue chips index, CSE30, advanced by 109.52 points or 1.35 per cent to close at 8196.23. Of the total 147 issues traded at the CSE, 79 posted gains, 66 dropped and two remained unchanged. Turnover at the CSE went down to Tk 40.98 crore from Tk 41.93 crore.