Retailers trade at Dhaka Stock Exchange office. BBN file photo
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s stocks ended higher last week that ended on Thursday as investors were active on large-cap shares before the national budget.
Stocks kept gaining amid investors’ anticipation of favorable budget declaration coupled with the news of securities regulator’s steps to revise public issue rules, market operators said.
Finance Minister A H M Mustafa Kamal is set to announce the next national budget for the fiscal year (FY) 2019-20 on June 13.
Meanwhile, bourses went for nine days vacation on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr until June 8, including weekly and special holidays.
The week saw five trading days as usual. All five sessions closed higher.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 127 points or 2.42 per cent to settle the week at 5,377.
Two other indices also ended higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 43.78 points to finish at 1,876 and the DSE Shariah Index rose 21.36 points to close at 1,214.
The total turnover stood at BDT 18.41 billion last week against BDT 17.93 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover averaged BDT 3.68 billion, registering an increase of 2.70 per cent over the previous week’s average of BDT 3.58 billion.
Block trade contributed 6.50 per cent to the total weekly turnover, where stocks like Square Pharma, BATBC, Grameenphone, BRAC Bank, Doreen Power dominated the block trade board.
Buoyancy in large-cap sectors like banking, financial institutions, telecom and power helped the prime index to end higher, they added.
Most of the major sectors posted gain with life insurance witnessed the highest gain of 10.65 per cent, followed by telecommunication with 4.92 per cent, non-bank financial institutions 4.68 per cent, banking 3.78 per cent.
Power, pharmaceuticals and engineering sectors also gained 0.86 per cent, 1.48 per cent and 0.86 per cent respectively.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also rose 2.15 per cent to BDT 3,941 billion on Thursday, from BDT 3,858 billion in the week before.
Gainers outnumbered the losers, as out of 352 issues traded, 199 closed higher, 113 ended lower and 40 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
United Power dominated the turnover chart, with 1.91 million shares worth BDT 643 million changing hands. The company accounted for 3.49 per cent of the week’s total turnover.
The other turnover leaders were National Life Insurance, BATBC, Square Pharmaceuticals and New Line Clothings.
National Life Insurance was the week’s best performer, posting a gain of 21.56 per cent while Meghna Condensed Milk was the worst loser, losing 15.60 per cent.
On the other hand, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) ended higher, with its CSE All Share Price Index -- CASPI – soaring 334 points to settle at 16,375 and the Selective Categories Index -- CSCX –gaining 208 points to finish at 9,916.
BBN/SSR/AD