Stocks jump on year’s first trading day

Dhaka stocks soared yesterday, rallying for a second day on rebounding from a falling trend for a month spurred by apprehensions centring the Omicron variant of coronavirus and discords between Bangladesh Bank and the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC).

The DSEX, the benchmark index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), soared 96 points, or 1.42 per cent, to 6,853. This means the two days' rise was of 122 points.

A few sales were made by individual and institutional investors so the market index rose, said Ahsanur Rahman, chief executive officer of BRAC EPL Stock Brokerage.

"Investors are observing the situation…I hope they will invest," he said.

It appears that the market will remain stable in the new year and there will be no meteoric rise like 2021, he said responding to a question.

The DSE posted another year of robust returns of 25.1 per cent from capital gains, enabling the DSEX to finish at 6,756.7 points at the year's end amidst the pandemic's adverse impacts.

In 2020, the market return stood at 21.3 per cent. This means between January 1, 2020 and December 30, 2021, the DSEX finished with a major bull run where 949 points and 1,355 points were added in 2020 and 2021 respectively.

The average daily turnover also registered a 127.2 per cent year-on-year growth with Tk 1,475 crore in 2021 against Tk 650 crore of 2020.

The second consecutive year of the bull run was mainly due to the availability of liquidity and low interest rate, growth of confidence for the BSEC's activities and stock prices being at their lowest in mid-2020, Rahman added.

At the DSE, 294 stocks advanced, 64 declined and 20 remained the same.

RN Spinning Mills topped the gainers' list, rising 10 per cent, followed by Fortune Shoes, CVO Petrochemical Refinery, Bangladesh Shipping Corporation, and Taufika Foods and Lovello Ice Cream.

The Sonali Paper and Board Mills shed the most, dropping 6.2 per cent, followed by Atlas Bangladesh, Asia Insurance, Bangladesh Monospool Paper Manufacturing Company and Reliance One Mutual Fund.

Beximco stocks were traded the most, worth Tk 99 crore, followed by Bangladesh Shipping Corporation, Fortune Shoes, IFIC Bank and GSP Finance.