Retailers trade at Dhaka Stock Exchange office. BBN file photo
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - Bangladesh’s stocks returned to green last week that ended on Thursday, breaking the five weeks’ losing streak, driven by government’s move to ease the ongoing liquidity crunch.
Analysts said the market edged higher as optimistic investors showed their buying appetite in the closing session of the week encouraged by the government’s move to mitigate the ongoing liquidity shortage.
Following the prevailing liquidity crisis, the government is set to relax policy for allowing its agencies to deposit more funds with the private commercial banks to help them mitigate the liquidity crisis.
Under the proposed relaxation, the state-owned enterprises will be allowed to deposit 40 percent of their funds with the private commercial banks and rest 60 percent with the public banks.
Currently, the state agencies are allowed to deposit only 25 percent of their funds with the private banks and rest 75 percent with the public banks.
They said investors became optimistic following the government’s move which may ease the ongoing liquidity shortage to some extent.
The week featured a four trading sessions as the market closed Monday due to public holiday. Of them, first three sessions ended lower while the last session rebounded strongly.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 16.86 points or 0.30 percent to settle at 5,597 points.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, also gained 23.75 points to finish at 2,106.
However, the DSES (Shariah) index shed 7.36 points to settle at 1,314.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), however, stay down with CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI – losing 24 points to settle at 17,215 points and Selective Categories Index - CSCX –falling 11 points to end at 10,403.
Turnover, the crucial indicator of the market, stood at BDT 12.84 billion which was BDT 17.69 billion in the previous week. The last week saw four trading sessions instead of five.
The daily turnover averaged BDT 3.21 billion, which was more than 27 percent lower than the previous week’s average of BDT 3.54 billion.
According to International Leasing Securities, the optimistic drive in the last session was mainly initiated by the news that to alleviate the ongoing liquidity crisis government might ease the policy and allow its agencies to deposit more funds in the private commercial banks.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 340 issues traded, 202 closed lower, 109 higher and 29 remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
Grameenphone topped the turnover chart with shares worth nearly BDT 516 million changing hands, followed by Square Pharmaceuticals, BRAC Bank, Merchant Bank and Salvo Chemical Industries.
Northern Jute Manufacturing Company was the week’s best performer, posting a gain of 12.44 percent while the newly listed Queen South Textile was the week’s worst loser, losing 22.57 percent.
BBN/SSR/SR