Stocks rally for 2nd day as cheque encashment issue resolved

The country’s stock market extended gains for the second straight day on Tuesday as the regulator finally resolved the longstanding issue of cheque encashment.

Ending all doubts and rumours, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) on Tuesday officially announced that it is conditionally allowing share trading against bank cheques before encashment.

Earlier on October 11, the BSEC asked stockbrokers not to trade shares against bank cheques before encashment.

Shares of most of the companies traded at the floor price on the day but some companies tried to break out of this circle.

At the end of the day, DSEX, the benchmark index of DSE increased by 35 points or 0.56 percent to settle the day at 6,388.

While the number of companies that gained or declined on Wednesday increased, the number of companies that were not traded was the lowest in eight business days.

Among other indices, the shariah-based DSES rose by 9 points or 0.68 percent and the blue-chip DS-30 was up by 8 points or 0.37 percent.

The amount of money traded in DSE was Tk 1,461 crore, which is Tk 558 crore more than the previous working day.

Also, this turnover is the highest in the last 23 working days. Earlier, on September 28, more than this amount or Tk 1,484 crore worth of shares were exchanged.

Shares of the 370 companies traded on the day, of which only 113 firms gained, 41 issues lost and 216 companies remained unchanged.

The miscellaneous sector rose to the top position in terms of transactions. The total turnover in this sector was Tk 316.8 crore, which is 22.15 percent of the total turnover.

The IT sector was at the second position with Tk 187.7 crore turnover, followed by pharmaceuticals and chemicals sector at Tk 173.5 crore.

Shares of Beximco Limited were the most-traded by value on the DSE as its shares worth Tk 199 crore were traded on the day.

Eastern Housing which was the second most-traded stock, had a turnover of Tk 63 crore followed by Genex Infosys, Bashundhara Paper Mills, BSC, Orion Pharma, Navana Pharmaceuticals, KDS Accessories, Aamra Tech and JHRML.

Meanwhile, the overall index CASPI of the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) increased over 71 points to 18,804 and securities worth Tk 24.13 crore were traded on the day.