Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s stocks returned to green last week that ended on Thursday, after remaining down in the past napping two weeks as some opportunistic investors took position on undervalued stocks later part of the week.
The week featured five trading sessions as usual. Of them, opening session of the week saw sharp fall while last four closed marginally higher.
The benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) went up by 11.69 points or 0.26 percent to settle at 4,484.53 points.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, also advanced 2.38 points or 0.14 percent to finish at 1,721.06 points.
However, the DSE Shariah Index saw a fractional loss of 0.80 point or 0.07 percent to close at 1,085.57 points.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended slightly higher after two weeks fall with its Selective Categories Index, CSCX, advancing 14.13 points or 0.17 percent to settle at 8,383.52 points.
The total turnover on DSE came down to BDT 16.15 billion last week, which was BDT 22.43 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover averaged BDT 3.23 billion, which was 28 percent lower than the previous week’s average of BDT 4.49 billion.
LankaBangla Securities, a stockbroker, said, “Downward trend of the market halted as the benchmark index turned back to positive territory touching a support level, though market participation remained significantly low”.
IDLC Investments, a merchant bank, said, “Lucratively priced stocks attracted the investors to take position along different cap classes”.
The merchant bank noted that the market participation declined significantly amid surging intra-session volatility throughout the week.
The gainers took a modest lead over the losers as out of 325 issues traded, 163 closed higher, 124 lower and 38 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor during the week.
Bangladesh Steel Re-rolling Mills dominated the week’s turnover chart last week with 4.80 million shares worth BDT 841 million changing hands followed by LankaBangla Finance, Orion Pharmaceuticals, CMC Kamal and Quasem Drycells.
Eastern Lubricants was the week’s best performer, posting a rise of 39.95 percent while GPH Ispat was the week’s worst loser, plunging by 28.19 percent.
BBN/SSR/BB