Regulatory efforts provide causes to cheer

The volatile stocks on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) witnessed some recovery in the past week as regulatory measures provided some causes to cheer.

The benchmark DSEX index settled flat with a marginal rise of almost 5 points, or 0.1 per cent to settle at 6,757 in the past week that ended on Thursday, recovering from 11 points lost in the previous week.

“The equity indices witnessed a mixed week as investors focused on specific prospective stocks while liquidating rest of the holdings,” said EBL Securities in a note.

It said investors remained concerned about ongoing macroeconomic trends such as inflationary pressure, rising deposit rates and private credit growth rates which will affect the medium to long term health of the capital market.

The capital market regulator intends to conduct meetings with capital market intermediaries to address the issue of increasing fund flow in the market.

Turnover advanced by 20 per cent to stand at Tk 937 crore as against Tk 780 crore in the previous week.

Investors were mostly active in engineering (10 per cent), pharmaceuticals and chemicals (9.8 per cent) and IT (9.7 per cent) sectors.

Most sectors witnessed positive performances out of which tannery (6.4 per cent), general insurance (5.3 per cent) and cement (3.4 per cent).

Life insurance (-2.5 per cent), miscellaneous (-1.7 per cent) and bank (-1.4 per cent) faced the most corrections in the past week.

The tone of the market in the past week was set by the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission’s measures to enhance cash flow to the market.

However, the economic woes and the Russia-Ukraine war are still in the mind of the investors, causing volatility, according to dealers.

Inflation climbed to 6.17 per cent in February, the highest in 16 months, driven by soaring costs of foods, further eroding the purchasing capacity of consumers, according to government data.

The greenback continued to gain strength against the local currency as the interbank exchange rate crossed Tk 86 per dollar in the week.