DSEX up 0.47% on bargain hunting

Following a sharp fall on Wednesday, stock indices in the Dhaka and Chattogram bourses closed higher on Thursday as bargain hunters came up to take the opportunity to bag some stocks at cheap rates.

DSEX, the broad-based index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), closed 0.47% higher at 6,984 on the day.

The index slipped 1.37% on Wednesday as the finance ministry meeting regarding the capital market did not bear any fruit in terms of resolving issues between the regulators of the money market and capital market.

Later, some media reports that informed about a possible meeting of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with the chiefs of the central bank, securities regulator, finance division and financial institutions division of the Ministry of Finance helped the market avert an intensified selling pressure as a large number of investors preferred to wait and see instead of triggering any selling order, said stockbrokers.

On top of that, bargain hunters moderately added to the buying pressure in some scrips which suffered very sharp corrections in the last two months.

However, the collective indecision regarding market direction was reflected in the intraday volatility which did not allow the DSEX to sustain above 7,000 level at the end of the trading session.

Also, investors' participation in daily trading on Thursday dropped to Tk1,043 crore from the previous day's Tk1,152 crore.

Turnover contraction was also due to the fact that large-cap stocks were little subdued and many small-cap stocks were trending in the market in the last few sessions.

Major indices of the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also closed higher while turnover in the port-city bourse dropped below Tk40 crore on Thursday, which was over Tk53 crore on the previous day.