After nine straight bearish weeks, the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) witnessed a buoyant week that ended Thursday on pinning hopes about a positive outcome from the securities regulator's ongoing series of meetings with different stakeholders to stabilise the market.
The trading in the prime bourse was cut to four days from usual five days in the week due to public holiday on Sunday on the occasion of Janmashtami, a Hindu ritual.
All the market barometers - the benchmark DSE General Index, All Shares Price Index (DSI) and DSE-20 comprising blue chips - gained 58.85 points, 47.16 points and 30.82 points to close at 2765.46, 2369.11, 2425.89 respectively.
The market picked up its steam in the week as the investors expected that some positive steps would be taken to bring the market on track after the end of the talks between Securities and Exchange Commission, merchant bankers and brokerage houses, according to the market operators.
The buoyant mood might be dented unless price stabilisation measures were taken after the talks, a market expert said adding, however, the investors started to feel comfortable thinking the market created the continuous falling trend.
On August 20, the SEC began talks with leading merchant bankers and brokerage houses and the meeting continued throughout the week.
The daily average turnover was up by 28.76 per cent to Tk 2.66 billion against the previous week's Tk 2.07 billion.
The market capitalisation was also up by 1.71 per cent to Tk 963.43 billion against Tk 947.23 billion of the previous week.
Out of 287 issues, 178 advanced, 54 declined, 13 remained unchanged and 42 were not traded in the week.
Titas Gas continued to dominate the trading for the fourth straight week as it accounted for about nine per cent of the week's total market turnover at the prime bourse.
In the week shares worth Tk 949.14 million of Titas Gas were traded.
Beximco Pharma was the second top turnover leader with shares worth Tk 576.24 million changing hands, accounting for 5.40 per cent.
Beximco Limited, Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd, AB Bank, Lankabangla Finance Company Limited, Uttara Bank, Keya Cosmetics, ACI Limited and Square Pharma were the other turnover leaders.
In the week, ICB was the top gainer posting a 39.90 per cent rise, followed by People's Insurance 30.68 per cent, 1st BSRS 30.52 per cent, Popular Life Insurance 27.16 per cent, Lexco 24.49 per cent, Agrani Insurance 23.62 per cent and National Polymer 23.36 per cent.
Pubali Bank was the biggest loser with 30.08 per cent drop as it went ex-dividend.
Maq Enterprises, Kohinoor Chemicals, Bangladesh Thai Aluminium, Renwick Jajneswar, Wonderland Toys, Jamuna Bank and Rahim Textile were the other top losers of the week.
The A-category issues accounted for 84.05 per cent of the total turnover in value during the week, while B-category issues shared 1.20 per cent, N-category 10.39 per cent and Z-category 4.36 per cent.
