Stocks manage to escape bad impact of blockade

FE Report
Dhaka stocks passed the last week without a significant fall as investors' participation in small cap companies was noticeable throughout the week, defying blockade, stock brokers said.
They said investors' cautious stand on fresh fund injection was also observed, which ultimately put the market in a mixed state, they said.
"Home investors were comparatively bullish on future macroeconomic prospects, backed by optimistic growth forecast by the World Bank and higher private sector credit growth," brokerage LankaBangla Securities said.
At the end of the week's trading session, the benchmark index shed 12.6 points, settling benchmark index DSEX finally at 4,956.1 points.
On the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), the average turnover stood at Tk 3.7 billion last week, compared with Tk 2.8 billion the week before.
Over the week, the list of top performing companies was not changed significantly, with companies such as Agni Systems, Saif Powertec, Western Marine Shipyard, Grameenphone, Alltex Industries, IDLC, Bangladesh Building Systems (BBS) and DESCO maintaining their dominance.
Experts said turnover failed to sustain above Tk 4.0 million due to failure in determination of price based on demand and supply of the capital market.
They said satisfactory reflection of corporate declaration is yet to be reflected in the country's capital markets.
The securities regulator last week formed two separate bodies to probe into 'unusual' price hike in Northern Jute Manufacturing Company and Alltex Industries.
Stocks closed the week's first session on Sunday amid volatility and shed 24.72 points to close at 4,943.99 points as investors' confidence remained shaky amid ongoing political turmoil in the country.
In the next two consecutive sessions, DSEX rose marginally as investors' buying spree put benchmark index 4969.73 points by adding 26.0 points. And both of the sessions observed turnover value above Tk 4.0 billion.
But on Wednesday turnover value went down below Tk 4.0-million-mark due to investors' profit booking. On the following trading session, Dhaka stocks ended flat with a rise of only 4.40 points which put index to 4956.09 points.
During the week, food and allied and textile were best performing sectors and went up by 4.6 per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively. On the other hand, life insurance was the week's worst performer by losing 2.0 per cent.
According to stock brokers, textile was the week's most vibrant sector capturing 15 per cent of the week's turnover value followed by Engineering 14 per cent.
During the week, paper and printing, food and allied and textile sector were the top gainers with the rise of 4.3 per cent, 4.2 per cent and 3.2 per cent respectively in their market price.
Meanwhile, last week Appollo Ispat Complex Limited has been upgraded to category 'A' from category 'N' as the company offered 15 percent bonus dividend for its shareholders for the year ended on June 30, 2014.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE--benchmark index CASPI stood at 15201.17 points on Thursday amid rise and fall observed throughout the week.
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