Stocks edge higher after four straight bearish weeks

After four bearish weeks, the Dhaka stocks edged up slightly in the past week thanks to recent regulatory measures taken to prevent the market crash amid the global turmoil and unstable commodity market.

The benchmark DSEX index advanced 97.44 points or 1.46 per cent and ended the week at 6,765 points. The index was at 6,668 in the previous week.

The blue-chip comprising DS30 index gained 33.39 points or 1.38 per cent to settle at 2,458 and the Shariah-based DSES index increased 18.91 points or 1.32 per cent to 1,454 in past week.

The Dhaka bourse started the week strongly taking cue from the previous week’s bullish trend but became stagnant later due to investors’ lack of positive expectations and profit booking tendency. Except for the opening session, stocks ended flat throughout the week.

Last week, the BSEC asked the bourses to calculate the lower limit circuit breaker at 2 per cent.

Besides, it asked the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) to pump Tk 100 crore in the capital market and also encouraged scheduled banks to invest more in stocks, which impacted investors positively.

However, some investors still remained worried about the market’s sustainability due to rising inflation, currency devolution and falling remittances.

The market capitalisation, another key market indicator, also increased 1.06 per cent in the week and rose to Tk 5,40,792 crore from Tk 5,35,106 crore recorded in the previous week.

The bourse’s average turnover increased 22.31 per cent to Tk 971 crore from Tk 794 crore in the previous week.

Out of 391 issues traded, 259 advanced, 103 declined and 24 remained unchanged.

Investors were Mostly active in textile (16.0 per cent), pharmaceuticals and chemicals (11.6 per cent) and IT (11.3 per cent) sectors.

Most sectors witnessed positive performances out of which mutual fund (6.3 per cent), travel and leisure (4.3 per cent) and IT (3.3 per cent) witnessed the highest appreciations and general insurance (-3.4 per cent), tannery (-2.3 per cent) and paper and printing (-1.2 per cent) witnessed the most corrections this week.

BDCOM Online was the top gainer in past week with 29.51 per cent jump in share price on the Dhaka bourse. It was followed by Silco Pharmaceuticals, Envoy textiles, CAPM IBBL Islamic Mutual Fund, shurwid industries, advent pharma, mozaffar hossain spinning mills, VFS thread dyeing, silva pharmaceuticals and vanguard AML BD finance mutual fund.

On the flip side, Zeal Bangla Sugar Mills turned out to be the week’s top loser as its share price plunged 9.56 per cent. The company was followed by Takaful Islami Insurance, united insurance, Bangladesh shipping corporation, Yeakin Polymer, Meghna Pet Industries and imam button industries.

Renata Ltd. was the week’s top index puller, followed by Bangladesh Export Import Company, Square Pharmaceuticals, pubali bank and LafargeHolcim Bangladesh.