Dhaka stocks rebound, turnover declines

FE ReportDhaka stocks rebounded Tuesday breaking the four straight sessions' losing streak, as the investors went for aggressive buying in the late hour, capitalising attractive prices of shares. Meanwhile, though the market closed higher, a section of investors under the banner of 'Bangladesh Share Market Investors Unity Council' (BSMIUC), staged demonstration in front of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) soon after the day's trading ended at 3pm. They chanted slogans against Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman and DSE President Shakil Rizvi and demanded immediate resignation of the high-ups. The market opened with a positive note, in a reversal of last subsequent four trading days' downtrend and gained more than 50 points within five minutes. The slow upbeat mood continued for the first three hours and last hour aggressive buying pressure helped the market to gain more than 168 points. The benchmark General Index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DGEN), the key index of the DSE, went up by 168.67 points or 3.34 per cent to close at 5,205.16. The broader DSE All Shares Price Index (DSI) rose 142.26 points or 3.38 per cent to close at 4,347.33. The DSE-20 blue-chip index also went up by 107.94 points or 2.87 per cent to close at 3,857.90. However, turnover, in value terms, came down to Tk 2.65 billion, down by 8.70 per cent compared to Tk 2.90 billion in the previous session which suggested that institutional investors were hardly active in the market. The gainers thrashed the losers as out of 254 issues traded, 228 advanced, only 21 declined and five remained unchanged. Professor Salauddin Ahmed Khan, a finance teacher at Dhaka University, told the FE, "Tuesday's market trend is rational and investors may become active in the market as most of the shares came down to an attractive price level." "Prices of most of the shares came down to an attractive price level due to continuous fall of the market which encouraged investors to buy shares," commented Mr Khan. Mr Khan also advised the investors to buy fundamentally strong shares at present. The market PE (price-earnings) ratio has come down to five-year low at 13.47 Sunday as the stocks continued to lose value because of panic sale by investors. "The lower PE ratio indicates that the stock market becomes less risky for investment and investors go for buying mood," said a stock broker. "Declining trend of turnover value suggested lack of institutional investors' participation and cautious trading from the part of retail investors," said a market insider. All the major sectors ended in green, as market witnessed buying pressure all across the board. Among the major sectors: banking sector advanced 4.02 per cent, whereas NBFIs, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and fuel and power gained 2.73 per cent, 3.26 per cent, 1.88 per cent and 3.78 per cent respectively. A total of 37.57 million shares changed hands on the day against 41.31 million in the previous session. The trade deals declined to 81,316 against Monday's 88,295. Total market capitalisation of the DSE, however, increased to Tk 2,592.23 billion against Tk 2,525.34 billion in the previous session. Beximco Limited topped the turnover list with shares worth Tk 290.52 million changed hands. The other turnover leaders were Grameenphone, Titas Gas, Mercantile Bank, Social Islami Bank, Beximco Pharma, UCBL, National Bank, Summit Power and City Bank. Saiham Textile was the day's highest gainer posting a rise of 8.91 per cent. It was followed by Fine Foods, Miracle Industries, Meghna Cement, Premier Bank, Fu-Wang Ceramics, Legacy Footwear, Active Fine, Phoenix Insurance and Anlima Yarn. The day's worst losers included Usmania Glass, Hakkani Pulp and Paper, Eighth ICB, Monno Jutex, Monno Stafflers, Savar Refractories, Purabi General Insurance, Rahim Textile, Libra Infusion and Meghna Pet.