Retailers trade at Dhaka Stock Exchange office. BBN file photo
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s stocks closed higher for the second week in a row that ended on Thursday, the last week of the just concluded fiscal year, as investors continued their buying appetite.
Brokers said the market maintained its bullish trend amid rising turnover as investors injected fresh funds into stocks to avail the tax benefit in the just concluded fiscal year coupled with positive impact of VAT policy reversal and other budgetary changes.
The week comprised only two trading sessions as the market closed first three days of the week on the occasion of to Eid-ul-Fitr, the biggest religious festival of the Muslims. All two trading sessions closed higher.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 56.97 points or 1.0 percent to settle at 5,656 points.
“The market is continuing the upward momentum having passed the 5,550 resistance level in the last week for the fiscal year 2016-17,” commented LankaBangla Securities, a stockbroker, in its weekly market analysis.
The stockbroker noted that bullish mentality was prevalent in the market as the deadline for investment tax benefit ended and positive impact of VAT policy reversal and other budgetary changes were seen.
The two other indices -- the DS30 index and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) -- followed the suit to close at 2,084 and 1,297, after advancing 12.40 points and 10.90 points respectively.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also finished higher with its Selective Categories Index, CSCX, advancing 101 points or 0.96 percent to settle at 10,591.
International Leasing Securities, a stockbroker, said, “The market closed higher as optimistic investors were reshuffling their portfolios ahead of June closing”.
The stockbroker noted that postponement of the uniform 15 per cent VAT law and reduces in the excise duty on bank deposit in the final budget allured the sideline investors to inject fresh fund in the market.
“Buoyancy of shares mostly from textile, food, telecom and bank sectors contributed to the upsurge in indices in the week and key index crossed 5,600 points after two months in DSE,” said the stockbroker.
The total turnover for the week stood at BDT 14.29 billion on DSE, registering a decline of 54 percent over the previous week’s total value of BDT 31.04 billion as the week saw only two trading sessions instead previous week’s five.
Accordingly, the daily turnover averaged at BDT 7.14 billion, which was 15 percent higher than the previous week’s average of BDT 6.21 billion.
The large-cap sectors showed positive performance throughout the week except non-bank financial institutions which lost 0.66 percent.
Food & allied sector posted the highest gain of 1.59 percent, followed by telecommunication 1.32 percent, bank 1.26 percent, fuel & power 0.73 percent, engineering 0.59 percent and pharmaceuticals 0.51 percent.
LankaBangla Finance topped the week’s turnover chart with shares of BDT 666 million changing hands, followed by Regent Textile, Doreen Power, CVO Petrochemical Refinery and Beximco.
The Peninsula Chittagong was the week’s highest gainer, posting a 17.39 percent rise, while Savar Refractories was the worst loser, losing 7.25 percent.
BBN/SSR/SR