Stocks close higher amid high turnover

Babul Barman Stocks witnessed sharp gain last week that ended Thursday and General Index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DGEN) crossed 4,500 points mark after eighth months with increasing turnover amid investors' boosted confidence. Investors' confidence grew over time by political easiness in recent days. Besides, increased foreign portfolio investment in recent times and record remittance inflow boosted investors' confidence further, brokers said. The week featured four trading sessions like the previous week as trading was closed Monday due to bank holiday. Among the four sessions, two gained sharply while remaining two saw mild correction. Investors' participation at DSE showed improvement in the week. The total market turnover for the week stood at Tk 30.49 billion against Tk 26.02 billion in the previous week. The average daily turnover for the week stood at Tk 7.62 billion, an increase of 17.14 per cent over the previous week's average of Tk 6.50 billion. Week-on-week the DGEN surged 116.84 points or 2.64 per cent to close at 4,542.32 points. The other two indices also ended in green --- the DSEX going up by 121.26 points or 2.92 per cent to close at 4,270.43 points while the blue chip index DS30 gaining sharply by 47.22 points or 3.05 per cent to close at 1,594.77 points. The port city bourse --- the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) -- also ended higher with the Selective Category Index of the CSE gaining 244.46 points or 2.99 per cent to close at 8,395.59 points. "Participation started to rebound this week over investors' increased confidence as the investors were relieved over Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) concern in Europe," commented IDLC Investments, in its weekly market analysis. The week observed the impact of investors' response over different issues relating to capital market like GSP, foreign portfolio investments and other macroeconomic issues, the IDLC Investments said. Over the week, repositioning and fresh positioning among the fundamentally strong scrips as well as profit booking were widely observed, the merchant bank said. "After a consolidation last week, the index has started its hiking mission. DGEN climbed up 4,500 levels for the first time in 2013," said LankaBangla Securities. Investors are sensing an up move from this level of DGEN as it seemed to sustain above this psychological 4,500 level, the stock broker said. The increased turnover in the week indicates strength of positive movement. After the fiscal year ending, investors seemed to try recovering their lost position during last week, the stock broker added. "With the earnings announcement coming up and improvement in economic environment, investors have been on a buying spree making their positions on their preferred scrips," the Zenith analysis said. The gainers took a strong lead over the losers as out of 294 issues traded during the week at DSE, 226 advanced, 60 declined and eight remained unchanged. All the major sectors posted hefty gains except banks as the heavyweight sector continued its losing streak with a loss of 1.36 per cent over the week. NBFIs' 5.45 per cent again was the highest weekly gain as in the previous week. The pharmaceutical sector advanced 4.51 per cent. Fuel and power sector gained 4.40 per cent, contributing the highest sectoral turnover and accounted for 24.71 per cent to total the DSE turnover. The market capitalisation of the DSE went up by 2.32 per cent as it was Tk 2,548.99 billion in the opening day and at the week end it stood at Tk 2,608.18 billion. During the week, three insurance companies --- Prime Islami Life Insurance, Progressive Life Insurance and Sunlife Insurance -- made their corporate declarations. Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company was the week's most traded stocks with shares worth Tk 1.44 billion changing hands. The week's other turnover leaders were Meghna Petroleum, Unique Hotel and Resorts, Summit Purbanchol Power Company, Titas Gas, Jamuna Oil, Olympic Industries, Aftab Automobiles and Square Pharma. JMI Syringes and Medical Devices was the week's highest gainer posting a rise of 45.87 per cent followed by Quasem Drycell, BSC, Premier Cement, Zahintex Industries, Keya Cosmetics, ICB AMCL Islamic Mutual Fund, S Alam Cold Rolled Steels, ICB AMCL First Mutual Fund and Ambee Pharma. The week's worst losers included Samata Leather Complex, National Housing Finance and Investments, Sunlife Insurance, Midas Financing, Fifth ICB, Shahjalal Islami Bank, Trust Bank, Jamuna Bank and Standard Bank.