Retailers trade at Dhaka Stock Exchange office. BBN file photo
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s stocks rebounded last week, breaking a four-week losing streak, as optimistic investors showed their buying appetite on large-cap issues.
Analysts said most of the investors were buying shares on heavyweight sectors like banking, power and financial institutions, taking the prime index above 5,400-mark last week.
The week featured five trading days as usual. Of them, three sessions closed higher while two posted ended marginally lower.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 75.39 points or 1.41 percent to settle at 5,418, after losing 258 points in the past four straight weeks.
Two other indices also ended higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 13.53 points to close at 1,899 and the DSE Shariah Index rose 20.70 points to end at 1,250.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, stood at BDT 28.79 billion which was BDT 28.49 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover averaged BDT 5.75 billion, registering an increase of 1.03 percent over the previous week’s average of BDT 5.70 billion.
According to International Leasing Securities, the bargain hunters showed their buying appetite on large-cap stocks amid optimism.
The stockbroker noted that the optimistic drive was mainly initiated by the news of net foreign fund in stocks turned positive in September 2018 after remaining negative over the period of last five months.
The stockbroker noted that some positive news on macro indicators, like stable economic growth and increased inflow of remittance also fueled the upward market trend.
“The investors went for taking position on sector specific stocks ahead of quarter-end earnings disclosures and ongoing dividend declarations,” the stockbroker said.
Among the major sectors, power posted the highest gain of 3.93 per cent, followed banking with 2.60 percent, engineering 1.44 percent and financial institutions 1.36 percent.
The insurance sector witnessed the highest loss of 10 percent, followed by food and allied with 1.66 percent, telecommunication 0.80 percent and pharmaceuticals 0.20 percent.
The gainers took a strong lead over the losers as out of 343 traded issues, 219 closed higher, 93 ended lower and 31 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
Khulna Power Company topped the week’s turnover chart for the third straight week with 19.49 million shares worth BDT 2.35 billion changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were United Power IFAD Autos, Active Fine Chemicals and BBS Cables.
Asia Pacific General Insurance was the week’s best performer, posting a gain of 36.57 percent. National Life Insurance was the worst loser, as its price plunged 19.58 percent last week.
The port city’s bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also ended higher with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI –advancing 219 points to settle at 16,660.
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