Stocks surge as margin loan rules eased

The Dhaka stocks on Tuesday jumped significantly due to the directive issued by the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) to increase the margin loan facility.

The directive issued by the BSEC on Monday (November 15) stated that regardless of the price index, investors will be able to get a loan of 80 percent margin against their own capital, effective from today.

On the day, turnover increased to over Tk 1,491 crore, up by about Tk 70 crore from the previous working day.

The key price index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, rose by more than 115 points to settle at 7,056.

With this, the index again crossed the 7,000 mark after 12 working days since October 18 when the index was 7,097 points.

Among other DSE indices, the blue-chip DS30 index gained by 31.71 points or 1.19 percent and shariah-based DSES up by 19.77 points or 1.34 percent.

Of the shares of 376 companies traded on the day, 130 or 34.57 percent saw a fall in prices, 219 or 58.25 percent witnessed an increase, and 27 or 7.18 percent remained unchanged.

Today, trading on the DSE began with the rise in shares and unit prices of most companies following the introduction of new guidelines on margin loans.

Accordingly, the benchmark index of DSE increased by 60 points from the start of trading. The upward trend of the index also increases with the passage of time.

Shares of Beximco were the most traded company on the DSE on Monday followed by IFIC Bank, Brac Bank, Square Pharma, Beximco Pharma, Orion Pharma, Genex Infosys, NRBC Bank, Kattali Textile and LankaBangla Finance.

Meanwhile, the overall index CASPI of the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) increased by 315.23 points to 20,638.36 points and securities worth Tk 65.93 crore have been traded.