Stocks end higher for third straight week

Stocks extended the winning streak for the third week in a row that ended Thursday, the first week of the new fiscal year, as investors continued to show their buying appetite on large-cap stocks.
Market insiders said several factors like revision of budget coupled with optimism of June closing year-end earnings and dividend declarations prompted investors to inject fresh funds into stocks.
Following the wide-spread criticism over uniform 15 per cent VAT law and excise duty hike on bank-balance, the government finally postponed the new VAT law and reduced the excise duty on bank-balance.
"Investors continued investing in the equity market riding on optimism on impending dividend declaration of June-ending companies while positive earnings growth of most listed banks' in January-June period of 2017, attracted investors to bank sector," said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.
Accordingly, the bank sector posted a 3.35 per cent gain with prices of 27 banks closed higher last week, out of 30 listed banks.
The week comprised five trading sessions as usual. Of them, three sessions closed higher amid increased turnover value, while two sessions saw mild correction.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 93.61 points or 1.70 per cent to settle at 5,750.
EBL Securities, a stockbroker, said, "The first week of the new fiscal year started with investors' high optimism amid increased turnover value".
The stockbroker noted that index shot up for the three trading sessions to reach a record high of 5,783 points since its inception in January 2013 during the week.
The two other indices also closed higher. The DS30 index and the DSE advanced 19.77 points or 0.96 per cent to settle at 2,104. The Shariah Index (DSES) followed the suit to close at 1,307, advancing 10.23 points or 0.78 per cent.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also closed higher with its Selective Categories Index, CSCX, advancing 185 points or 1.74 per cent to settle at 10,776.
The total turnover for the week stood at Tk 53 billion on DSE, against the previous week's total of Tk 14.29 billion as the previous week saw only two trading sessions instead of last week's five.
The daily turnover averaged at Tk 10.6 billion, which was 48 per cent higher than the previous week's average of Tk 7.14 billion.
Textile sector kept dominance in turnover chart, contributing 19 per cent of the week's total turnover value, followed by bank 13 per cent and pharmaceuticals 12 per cent.
"The optimistic sentiment and positive expectation among the opportunist investors about the positive half-yearly operating profits by most of the listed banks helped to revive the buoyancy last week," said International Leasing Securities, a stockbroker, in its regular market analysis.
The stockbroker noted that decline in bank interest rate and possible cut in savings certificate rate turned the market more attractive for the investors.
"Buoyancy of shares mostly from financial institution, services, bank and cement sectors contributed to the upsurge in indices in the week and key index touched 5,783 points which is the highest since the inception of DSEX index in January 2013," said the stockbroker.
In spite of upsurge in first three days in the telecom sector, the sector was the top loser based on the news of claiming charge to the telecom operators by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) relating to issuance and replacement of SIMs to customers, the stockbroker said.
The total market cap of the DSE also soared 1.39 per cent last week as it was Tk 3,801 billion on the opening day of the week, while stood at Tk 3,854 billion on closing day of the week.
LankaBangla Finance topped the week's turnover chart with shares of Tk 1.57 billion changing hands, followed by Regent Textile, Baraka Power, Fu-Wang and Keya Cosmetics.
Fu-Wang Food was the week's highest gainer, posting a 33 per cent rise, while Shinepukur Ceramic was the worst loser, losing 10.06 per cent.
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