Stocks end year on positive note

DSEX, the key index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, gained 4.60 points and closed the week at 6,206.81 points thanks to year-end restructuring of portfolios by investors.

However, the average turnover decreased by 20.27 per cent to Tk 268 crore. The pharmaceutical sector dominated the turnover chart, grabbing 30.81 per cent of the total turnover.

In the week, the blue-chip index--DS30--gained 0.79 points and stood at 2,195.30 points while the Shariah-based index--DSES--gained 1.19 points and stood at 1,358.84 points.

The stock market saw four sessions during this week with a negative note by 0.20 per cent on Monday and by 0.15 per cent on Tuesday. However, it turned positive by 0.25 per cent on Wednesday and ended on a positive note by 0.18 per cent on Thursday.

The financial sectors showed mixed performance this week. Life Insurance booked the highest gain of 0.73 per cent, followed by NBFIs 0.27 per cent and banks 0.13 per cent. General Insurance suffered the highest loss of 0.39 per cent, followed by Mutual Fund 0.14 per cent, according to the BRAC EPL's weekly market commentary.

UCB Stock Brokerage said its weekly market review, IT, Services & Real Estate and Paper & Printing sectors closed positive this week while Ceramics, Travel & Leisure and General Insurance sectors faced correction.

EBL Securities in the weekly market commentary said, the benchmark index of the main bourse marginally edged up in the last week of this year due to investors' year-end restructuring of their portfolios.

However, investors have yet to overcome concerns regarding the future macroeconomic and political uncertainty. Rather, the regulator's decision to remove the floor price of 169 low-cap securities and its plan to gradually raise the floor price of mid-cap and large-cap securities in the upcoming year have fuelled the uncertainty regarding the short-term outlook of the market, it said.

On December 21, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) lifted the floor price from 169 listed companies and mutual funds.

Since the day, the lower price change limit for the certain 169 companies would be 1 per cent based on the reference price of the last trading day’s closing price.

An upper price change limit (circuit breaker), however, is still in place for them, according to the BSEC order.

The BSEC on July 28 this year imposed floor prices on all companies again to prevent shares from falling beyond a certain level.

Share prices of most of the companies have been stuck at their floor prices, making investors averse to liquidating their holdings, resulting in a liquidity crunch in the market.

Previously in March 2020, the securities regulator had taken a similar step aiming to limit the free fall in shares after the Covid-19 pandemic in Bangladesh when the DSEX fell below 3,000-mark.

Out of the 400 issues traded, 67 advanced, 117 declined, and 197 remained unchanged on the Dhaka bourse in the week.

Islami Commercial Insurance Company was the week's top gainer, soaring 45.6 per cent while Monno Ceramic Industries was the week's worst loser, losing 6 per cent.

The port city's stock exchange, the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also showed green this week. CSCX and CASPI declined by 0.028 per cent and 0.074 per cent respectively.

Out of the 250 issues traded, 41 advanced, 58 declined, and 151 remained unchanged on the CSE in the week.