Stocks continue to rally on vaccine news

Dhaka stocks continued to rally for the third consecutive session on Thursday, as the vaccine news continued to bolster investors’ sentiment.

Trading kicked off with a spike at the bourse and the uptrend continued for the rest of the day. Pharmaceutical-related stocks turned attractive, as investors cheered progress on Covid-19 vaccines by rushing into shares of companies expected to benefit the most.

At close, the benchmark DSEX index gained almost 40 points or 0.81% to 4,974 on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).

Among other indices, the Shariah-based DSES index rose around 10 points or 0.70% to 1,135 and blue chip DS30 index finished 22 points or 1.29% to 1,727.

“The vaccine news helped boost stocks,” said a stop broker. Yet, zigzag trading proved that some investors booked profits on some issues, he added.

Among other major sectors mutual fund, NBFI, telecom sectors advanced while profit-booking was mainly noted in the cement, life insurance and travel and leisure sectors throughout the day.

The insurance sector posted the highest trading volumes, accounting for 24.2% of total turnover. The daily traded value stood at Tk822 crore, a marginal decline from Tk841 crore recorded in the previous day.

Gainers significantly outpaced losers as out of 352 issues traded, 184 closed higher, 75 declined and 93 remained unchanged.

Heavyweight Beximco continued to post the highest trading volumes, making it top turnover leader with shares worth Tk42 crore.

It was followed by Republic Insurance Company, Beximco Pharmaceuticals, Nitol Insurance, Paramount Textile Ltd, Pragati Insurance, Aman Food, Silva Pharmaceuticals and Square Pharmaceuticals.

Debutant Dominage Steel Building Systems’s stocks skyrocketed as it hit the upper limit circuit breaker on the second trading day and became the top gainer. Its shares rose to Tk22.5 from previous session’s close of Tk15.2 a share.

Other highest gainers included Republic Insurance Company, Rangpur Dairy Food, PTL, Aman Food and Appollo Ispat.

Syampur Sugar Mill suffered most with a loss of 5.78% following the news that the company has stopped production.