Small cap stocks fare well

The market gained back-to-back weeks with key index of the major bourse transcending 4,600-mark last week that ended Thursday as positive market trend boosted investors' confidence.

Last week featured five trading sessions as usual--of them, four sessions closed higher while one saw marginal loss.

DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), surpassed the 'psychological' threshold of 4,600-mark and ended at 4,642.38 points after surging 64.38 points or 1.41 per cent over the previous week.

The DS30 that comprises blue chips and the DSE Shariah Index peaked at 1,758.24 points and 1,088.93 points respectively from the inception after gaining 31.77 points and 22.80 points during the week.

The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended marginally higher with its Selective Categories Index-CSCX-went up by 66.87 points or 0.77 per cent to close at 8,725.25 points.

However, fresh fund injection slowed down last week. The week's total turnover amounted to Tk 27.00 billion, which was Tk 34.51 billion in the week before.

The daily turnover for the week averaged Tk 5.40 billion, registering a decline of 21.76 per cent over the previous week's average Tk 6.90 billion.

Textile, pharmaceuticals and engineering stocks grabbed the investors' attention - accounted for 14 per cent, 14 per cent and 13 per cent respectively of the week's total turnover.

"Coupled with extended vibe in large cap stocks, short-term profit motivated clienteles to look at some micro and small cap stocks," IDLC Investments, an investment bank, said in its weekly market analysis.

"Volatility showed up throughout the week, while micro cap and small cap stocks performed better," said the investment bank.

Participants remained concentrated on re-allocation of portfolio, on the basis of sector and issue-wise shuffle. But the market demonstrated robust performance, with DSEX closing above 4,600-points after four months, the merchant bank added.

LankaBangla Securities said: "Market closed last week above 4,600-level and it will give some boost to the investors".

"Market seems to be on an upward trend again. Turnover is yet to come back compared to the past few weeks. Next week investors would expect turnover to follow index," said the stock broker.

The stock market went for a bullish outlook as investors became optimistic about the market's future prospects, said International Leasing Securities.

Most of the investors became interested in the large-cap stocks like Lafarge Surma and Square Pharma, others focused on issues that were trading at a very lucrative price level, particularly in insurance and financial institution sector, said the International Leasing.

Overall health of the market looks quite positive, but investors should be careful about the sound issues and gambling issues, said Zenith Investments.

Among the sectors, top gaining sectors of the week were IT 9.54 per cent, cement 7.92 per cent and ceramic 6.46 per cent.

Conversely, top losing sectors were food and allied 1.74 per cent, paper and printing 1.57 per cent and travel and leisure 1.34 per cent respectively.

Among the major sectors - food and allied lost 1.73 per cent while bank closed flat in red with 0.01 per cent loss. NBFIs gained the most with 4.90 per cent followed by telecommunication which went up by 4.86 per cent.

Pharmaceuticals and fuel and power also moved up in the week with 0.15 per cent and 0.68 per cent respectively.

Gainers outpaced losers as out of 309 issues traded, 189 gained, 101 declined and 19 remained unchanged on DSE floor during the week.

Two listed textile sector companies - Mozaffar Hossain Spinning Mills and FAR Chemical--made corporate declaration last week. Mozaffar Hossain Spinning Mills declared 25 per cent stock and FAR Chemical declared 20 per cent stock dividend.

The market capitalisation of the DSE went up sharply by 3.12 per cent as it was Tk 3,030.89 billion on the opening day of the week and it stood at Tk 3,125.35 billion on the closing day of the week.

Beximco dominated the week's top turnover chart for the second week straight with shares worth Tk 1.33 billion changing hands followed by GP, MJL BD, Lafarge Surma Cement and Beximco Pharma.

Intech Online, an IT company, was the week's top gainer, posting a rise of 27.27 per cent while AIMS First Mutual Fund was the week worst loser, plunging by 25.24 per cent following its price adjustment in the week after record date.

A new issue - Tung Hai Knitting & Dyeing made debut Monday. Each share of the company traded between Tk 33.5 and Tk 27.5 on the prime bourse before closing at Tk 27.8, gaining 178 per cent.