Retailers trade at Dhaka Stock Exchange office. BBN file photo
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s stocks rebounded strongly in the last week that concluded on Thursday amid increased turnover as investors went on buying spree.
The investors became optimistic as the political tensions eased to some extent and dividend declarations are in the offing, according to the market operators.
The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) witnessed five trading sessions as usual this week. Of them, three sessions closed higher and two faced correction. Thursday was the last trading session of the week.
Week on week, DSEX, the prime index of the prime bourse, settled 84.57 points or 1.42 per cent higher at 6,050, after witnessing two weeks of correction.
Two other indices of the premier bourse also ended higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 5.44 points to finish at 2,231 and DSES (Shariah) ended 15.87 points higher at 1,405.
The country’s port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also rebounded, with CSE All Share Price Index-CASPI-advancing 294 points to close at 18,428 and Selective Categories Index-CSCX-gaining 169 points to finish at 11,297.
"Overcoming the fear of the political uncertainty was the main reason behind the optimistic attitude of the investors," commented International Leasing Securities, in an analysis.
The stockbroker also said that investors took position in the engineering, banking and telecoms sectors while some of the investors liquidated their position from fuel and power, financial institution and general insurance sectors.
But the top gainers' list was dominated by the "Z" category stocks even though some of the companies have clarified that they have no price sensitive information to announce, it added.
Bullish sentiment was also reflected on the trading activities as total turnover on the DSE stood at BDT 25.79 billion, up from BDT 18.27 billion the previous week.
The daily turnover averaged out at BDT 5.15 billion, up 41 per cent from the previous week's average of BDT 3.65 billion.
Three listed companies-LankaBangla Finance, Green Delta Insurance and IDLC Finance-recommended dividend last week for the year ending on December 31, 2017.
The banking sector kept its dominance on the turnover chart, grabbing 17 per cent of the week's total turnover, followed by engineering (14 per cent) and pharmaceuticals (13 per cent).
The market capitalisation of the DSE also saw a rise of 0.72 per cent-from BDT 4,147 billion on the opening day of the week to BDT 4,177 billion on Thursday.
The gainers outnumbered losers by 241 to 72, while 25 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
LankaBangla Finance topped the week's turnover chart with 23.73 million shares worth nearly BDT 964 million changing hands, followed by Grameephone (BDT 680 million), Square Pharma (BDT 669 million), Brac Bank (BDT 646 million) and Monno Ceramic Industries (BDT 621 million).
Fine Foods was the week's best performer, posting a gain of 25.82 per cent, while Imam Button shed 6.92 per cent to become the week's biggest loser, the DSE data showed.
BBN/SSR/AD