Stocks advance pausing free-fall

Stocks registered modest gains in both bourses on Wednesday after experiencing torrid sessions in the week earlier. 

The Bangladesh Bank's recent announcement to support the capital market by disbursing soft loans has injected some confidence among the investors, said several brokers.

The benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX advanced 32 points or 0.8 percent to end the session at 4,068 points. CASPI, the all share price index of the Chittagong Stock Exchange also posted a gain of 93 points or 0.8 percent to close at 12,393 points. 

DSES, the Shariah index edged up 7 points or 0.8 percent to close at 914 points, while DS30, the index comprising of blue chips, gained 10 points or 0.7 percent closing at 1,371 points. 

Bangladesh Bank officials have recently told the Business Standard that the finance ministry has proposed the central bank to make policies on ways to disburse a soft loan of Tk10,000 crore to the stock market intermediaries from the fiscal budget.

The Tk10,000 crore fund is to be handed out among the stock dealers, merchant bankers and asset managers, which might help increase their purchasing power and later stop the ongoing market fall, the officials added. 

Participation remained low and turnover decreased by 8 percent to Tk243 crore as investors came out from their panic-driven sell offs and took a sideline approach to observe the market, said the Daily Market Review of EBL Securities Ltd. 

Following the positive news from the finance ministry and the Bangladesh Bank, the financial institutions posted the highest sector wise gain of 1.8 percent on Wednesday. The sector was followed by large-cap sectors bank and pharmaceuticals, both exhibiting 1.1 percent price appreciation.  

The IT and telecom sectors, however, failed to recover from its downward trend and experienced 1.4 percent and 1.2 percent price correction respectively. 

Among the big shot stocks, Brac bank registered the highest gain of 3.4 percent, followed by Square Pharma gaining 2.3 percent, Renata gaining 1.2 percent and British American Tobacco gaining 1 percent while United Power slid 2 percent and Grameenphone slid 0.1 percent price. 

The Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd was the most traded stock with Tk20.4 crore valued turnover closing at Tk166 per share. 

The Dacca Dyeing & Manufacturing Company Ltd was the best performer at the gainers' table gaining 10 percent to close at Tk3.3 per share.

Shyampur Sugar Mills Ltd was the day's worst loser, shedding 9.6 percent ending the day with a closing price of Tk20.8 per share. 

Gainers were sharply ahead of the losers as out of 353 issues traded, 210 advanced, 94 declined and 49 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.