Stocks close higher for third straight week

Stocks closed higher for the third straight week on the bourses that ended Thursday last with turnover improving further amid growing investors' confidence and apparent stability in the market.
 "The market ended positive riding on renewed enthusiasm over banks and impressive earning declarations from fuel & power sector," said a stock broker.
The week witnessed five trading sessions as usual and market remained upbeat four trading sessions while one session saw profit taking correction.
Week-on-week the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) - DSEX-- went up by 40.73 points or 0.97 per cent to close the week at 4,241.45 points.
However, the DS30 Index, comprising blue chips declined slightly by 6.36 points or 0.44 per cent to close the week at 1,446.98 points.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended higher last week, with its Selective Categories Index gained 186.90 points or 2.31 per cent to close the week at 8,274.78 points.
Trading activities remained healthy in the week. The total market turnover value stood at Tk 23.72 billion against Tk 19.80 billion in the previous week.
The daily average turnover stood at Tk 4.74 billion, registering 19.8 per cent rise over the previous week's average Tk 3.96 billion.
 "Although four out of five trading sessions of last week were shaded by 84-hour long shutdown, the bourse remained rather positive, gaining 40.73 points over the week," IDLC Investments, said in its weekly market analysis.
Turnover also crossing Tk 5.0 billion-mark twice in the week due to growing investor confidence fueled by apparent stability in the market and sector based return opportunities especially, in textile and bank which gained 4.92 per cent and 1.59 per cent respectively, said the merchant bank.
The maiden session of the week presented a robust movement, gaining 43.89 points in spite of the looming crisis in the political frontier. The rally in bank sector continued from previous week to the maiden session, catapulting 9 banks to capture top ten gainers list.
However, the rally ended at the very next session, as investors started ripping profit from their bank holdings, which deflected DSEX from its 7-session long gaining streak.
"As the surge in bank sector took a break, the fourth session of the week observed redistribution of funds, much of which flowed into textile sector, registering Tk 1.25 billion turnover and 2.47 per cent return," said the merchant bank.
However, profit booking spree forced a negative ending for textile on the fifth session of the week. Nevertheless, the bourse ended positive riding on renewed enthusiasm over banks and impressive earning declarations from fuel & power sector, the merchant bank added.
The gainers took a marginal lead over the losers as out of 295 issues traded during the week, 158 advanced, 124 declined and 13 remained unchanged on the prime bourse.
All the major sectors ended in red this week except banks which ended 1.73 per cent higher. Telecommunications posted the highest loss of 2.79 per cent. The other sectors saw marginal loss with fuel & power, NBFIs and pharmaceuticals lost 0.66 per cent, 0.46 per cent and 0.33 per cent respectively.
The market capitalisation of the DSE went up slightly by 0.56 per cent as it was Tk 2,607.31 billion at the opening day of the week and it stood at Tk 2,621.99 billion in closing day of the week.
A total of 9 listed companies and one mutual fund unit - Pharma Aids, Eastern Lubricants, Padma Oil, Power Grid, Meghna Petroleum, Delta Spinners, Dacca Dyeing, Kohinoor Chemicals, Orion Infusion and LR Global Mutual Fund made corporate declaration during the week.
Generation Next Fashion became the week's top turnover leaders with shares worth Tk 1.20 billion changing hands followed by Meghna Petroleum, RN Spinning, United Commercial Bank and Argon Denim.
ICB AMCL Sonali Bank First Mutual Fund was the week's top gainer, posting a rise of 23.94 per cent while Stylecraft was the week's worst losers, slumping by 10.93 per cent.