Stocks close higher for 6th week

Stocks continued its gaining streak for the sixth straight week with key index of the premier bourse setting a new high, powered by investors' buying spree.
"A gradual increase in investors' confidence helped the market set the new high. The apparent persistence of positive sessions has been pulling previously inactive investors, thus improving overall activity," said an analyst.
The week featured all five trading sessions. Among them, market closed higher four trading sessions while one session saw marginal correction.
Week-on-week, the prime index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) --- DSEX --- crossed 4,800 point-mark and closed the week at a new high of 4,845.09 points, after surging 91.92 points or 1.93 per cent. It is the highest level of DSEX since its inception on January 28, 2013.
The other two indices also posted commendable gains after retracing in the previous week. The blue chip index DS30 advanced 21.56 points or 1.30 per cent to 1,681.91 while the Shariah compliant index (DSES) gained 22.09 points or 2.27 per cent to close the week at 996.36 points.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) ended also higher, with its Selective Categories Index --- CSCX --- gaining 156.08 points or 1.67 per cent to close the week at 9,523.05 points.
 Market participation at DSE improved slightly during the week. The total turnover stood at Tk 36.64 billion for the week which was Tk 36.09 billion in the previous week.
The average daily turnover amounted to Tk 7.32 billion, registering 1.53 per cent increase over the previous week's average of Tk 7.21 billion.
"Post-election bullish vibe continued this week as well, finding stimulus from quarterly earning declarations," said IDLC Investments, in its weekly market analysis.
 Investors reshuffled their priority list this week, trying to positioning themselves to benefit from future direction and trend of the market, the merchant bank said.
"Earning declarations played strong role in pricing of securities in the maiden part of the week. Mixed earnings came as surprise in perspective of extreme political turmoil in last few months of 2013," said the merchant bank.
The surprise solidified the perception of resilience of the country's economy and added incentives to commit to the market, said the merchant bank.
Investors were watchful over banks as corporate declarations from the sectors to arrive shortly. Resultantly, the sector captured 17 per cent of the week's total turnover, followed by fuel and power 14 per cent. This week, Large and Mid Cap managed to gain significantly, outperforming smaller cap classes, the merchant bank added.
"Investors are absorbing the selling pressure as they are accelerating their buying spree whenever they see cheaper prices," LankaBangla Securities said in its weekly market analysis.
Some investors may feel market has become overbought and market price earning (PE) is quite high. Other investors may feel that market PE is overstated as it is not a normal one, said the stock broker.
As financial organisations performed very poorly for last two years, if those organisations come back to a normal earnings environment, market PE will go down, the stock broker said.
"Market reflected strength and closed gracefully with the week, leaving investors in a jolly mood. Pressures intensified from both buy and sell side, culminating in high volume turnover," said Zenith Investments.
Among the major sectors, top gaining sectors of the week were food and allied 6.3 per cent, tannery 6.1 per cent and pharmaceuticals 5.7 per cent. Banks and fuel and power also gained 2.82 per cent and 0.46 per cent respectively.
Conversely, top losing sectors were mutual fund 12.9 per cent, textile 2.6 per cent, engineering 2.5 per cent, NBFI 0.35 per cent and telecommunications 0.13 per cent.
The gainers took a modest lead over the losers as out of 298 issues traded during the week, 149 advanced, 138 declined and 11 remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
Three listed company - RAK Ceramics, S Alam Cold Rolled Steels and Green Delta Insurance made corporate declaration in the week. RAK Ceramics declared 15 per cent, cash 10 per cent bonus, S Alam Cold Rolled Steels recommended 13 per cent cash and Green Delta Insurance declared 15 per cent cash and 15 per cent bonus dividend during the week.
The market capitalisation of the DSE scaled up by 1.51 per cent as it was Tk 2,875.71 billion at the opening day of the week and it reached at Tk 2,919.36 billion on closing day of the week.
 Meghna Petroleum dominated the week's top turnover chart with shares worth Tk 1.37 billion changing hands during the week followed by Square Pharma, Jamuna Oil, Mercantile Bank and United Airways.
 Al-Haj Textile was the week's top gainer, posting a rise of 18.37 per cent while GSP Finance was the week's worst losers, declining by 17.13 per cent.