Stocks rebound riding on banks

Stocks returned to green last week that ended Thursday with higher turnover, after previous week's marginal correction, as investors remained active in the market almost throughout the week.
"The market rebounded as the investors showed their buying appetite once again in the financial stocks, mainly on heavyweight banking issues," analysts said.
Banking stocks were up by 5.30 per cent, driven by sector's heavyweight Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd, which provided 26.5 per cent return last week.
The week witnessed five trading sessions as usual. Of them, first four sessions closed higher while last one saw marginal correction.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), crossed the 4,800-mark and settled the week at 4,864.45, gaining 72.14 points or 1.51 per cent.
The two other indices also ended in the positive zone. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, went up slightly by 2.92 points or 0.16 per cent to end at 1,886.83. The DSE Shariah Index gained 7.22 points or 0.61 per cent to finish at 1,197.08.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended higher with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX - rose 120.37 points or 1.34 per cent to close the week at 9,040.
Turnover remained vibrant throughout the week and the total turnover surged to Tk 41.38 billion on the main bourse against Tk 33.83 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover for the week averaged Tk 8.27 billion, registering an increase of 22.29 per cent over the previous week's averaged Tk 6.76 billion.
The participants remained active on engineering, power and pharmaceuticals - the sectors that accounted for 18.6 per cent, 18.5 per cent and 14.4 per cent of the week's total turnover.
"Investors demonstrated positive perception and earlier session witnessed notable position talking buying pressure in mainly bank, fuel power and construction stocks," said International Leasing Securities, a stockbroker, in its weekly analysis.
However, last three sessions ended in flat as shaky investors preferred to book quick profit amid short term trading preference, said the stockbroker.
IDLC Investments, a merchant bank, said, "Investors remained cautious about price levels and kept on looking for undervalued issues with growth opportunities that were not priced yet".
The search led to banks in the middle of the week as they were trading at drastically low P/Es, said the merchant bank.
However the excitement could not prolong as investors' confidence on the sector is yet to find a solid ground. Later on, investors scattered over sectors in search of undervalued stocks, the merchant bank said.
Lock in on stocks of the large-cap United Power Generation for institutional investors expired last week. Market had anticipated some correction to the stock price due to institutional sell pressure. But the stock kept on gaining 4.30 per cent in the week, it said.
Sheltech Brokerage said that most of companies of power sector are waiting for their year-end declarations. Some of the companies have also broken their significant resistance level and showing signs of accumulation. So a price movement may hit the power sector in the coming week.
The large-cap sectors showed a mixed performance. The financial sector posted heavy gain with banks gaining a hefty 5.30 per cent followed by NBFIs 1.58 per cent and food and allied by 0.79 per cent. Fuel and power posted a gain of 0.54 per cent.
Telecommunication and cement went through a significant correction of 1.91 per cent and 1.29 per cent respectively over the week. Pharmaceuticals retraced by 0.31 per cent.
The gainers took a strong lead over the losers as out of 325 issues traded, 212 advanced, 95 declined and 18 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
The market capitalisation of the DSE went up by 1.0 per cent as it was Tk 3,370.05 billion on the opening day of the week and it stood at Tk 3,403.84 billion on closing day of the week.
Eight mutual funds of the state-owned ICB declared 'record' cash dividend while Berger Paints declared 100 per cent interim cash dividend last week.
United Power was the week's top turnover leader with shares worth above Tk 1.89 billion changing hands during the week followed by Lafarge Surma Cement, Islami Bank, Square Pharma and Beximco Pharma.
Gemini Sea Food was the week's best performer, posting a rise of 37.21 per cent while Meghna Life Insurance was the week's worst loser, plunging by 15 per cent.
[email protected]