Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– Bangladesh’s stocks gained significantly in the last week following improved turnover, driven by banks and multinational companies, market operators said.
The stocks cruised to a higher path for the second straight week and key index of the prime bourse Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) — crossed the 4,700-point mark. All the five trading sessions of the week gained.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the benchmark index of DSE, went up by 103.53 points or 2.25 percent to close at 7-week high to 4,702.45 points.
The other two indices also closed positive. The DS30, comprising blue chips, finished the day at 1,720.20 points after surging 17.04 points or 1.00 percent. The DSE Shariah Index rose by 5.31 points or 0.51 percent to close at 1,040.24 points.
The port city bourse — the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE)– also went up sharply with its Selective Categories Index (CSCX) gained 215.84 points or 2.43 percent to close the week at 9,084.55 points.
The total turnover amounted to BDT 24.72 billion on DSE which was 41.61 percent higher than previous week's total value of BDT 17.46 billion as this week saw five trading sessions instead of previous week's four.
The average daily turnover for the week stood at BDT 4.94 billion, registering an increase of 13.29 percent over the previous week's average BDT 4.36 billion.
The gainers took a lead over the losers as out of 302 issues traded during the week, 198 advanced, 97 declined and 7 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Among the major sectors, the banking sector attracted investors most as the sector rallied up during the week with the highest gain of 6.79 percent followed by telecommunications 5.33 percent and pharmaceuticals 2.42 percent.
Non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) advanced marginally by 0.57 percent. Fuel & power lost 1.23 per cent and food & allied lost 1.23 percent.
A total of 13 listed companies — Fareast Finance & Investments, AFC Agro, National Housing & Finance, MJL BD, City General Insurance, Shajalal Islami Bank, Provati Insurance, Agrani Insurance, Active Fine, Central Insurance, BFIC, NCC Bank and Kay & Que — made corporate declarations during the week.
The market capitalisation of the DSE went up by 0.186 percent as it was BDT 2,947.66 billion on the opening day of the week and it stood at BDT 3,002.35 billion at the closing session of the week.
GP dominated the week's top turnover chart with shares worth BDT 1.88 billion changing hands during the week followed by Meghna Petroleum, Lafarge Surma Cement, Olympic Industries and Heidelberg Cement.
"Market rally was mainly dominated by banking and multinational corporations (MNCs) stocks. Probably investors are sensing good first quarter results for banks and MNCs," commented LankaBangla Securities in its weekly market analysis.
"Banks with large treasury bond portfolio are supposed to observe healthy capital gain as interest rates of treasury bonds have gone down in recent auctions," it noted.
BBN/SSR/AD-26Apr14-12:37 am (BST)
