Investors upbeat about stock market

Following a week of decline in price indices and transactions, the country’s stock market showed a completely opposite picture this week.

On the three working sessions this week, all the indices along with the turnover increased.

Market insiders attributed three factors to an upbeat stock market in recent days.

The differences between the two regulatory bodies — the Bangladesh Bank and the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) — over the capital market have been resolved. This is helping the market, they said.

Furthermore, they said, the pressure on the exchange rate of the US dollar against the taka seems to be waning.

In addition, BSEC’s announcement that the floor price mechanism will not be withdrawn amid opposite rumours is further helping the market perform better.

These have started to bring back the lost confidence among investors in the market, they said.

Market participants think inactive investors are becoming active as the index moved up in trading this week. The investors are buying shares, guiding prices to gradually increase.

At the end of the day, DSEX, the benchmark index of DSE, increased over 15 points or 0.24 percent to settle the day at 6,241.

Among other indices, the shariah-based DSES rose by 5 points or 0.36 percent and the blue-chip DS-30 was up by 7.02 points or 0.31 percent.

Increase in prices of major companies like LafargeHolcim Cement, Walton, Beximco Limited and United Power helped the index to rise on the day.

In contrast, among the companies that fell, there were few companies that impacted the index.

On Thursday, the DSE had a turnover of Tk 1,159.60 crore, which is Tk 124.95 crore more than the previous session.

The textile sector, which has been at the peak of interest for the past one month, remained the top of the trade today, although most of the companies in the sector fell, reversing the previous day’s position.

The total turnover in this sector was Tk 205.7 crore, which is 18.56 percent of the total turnover.

The miscellaneous sector was at the second position with Tk 139.1 crore turnover, followed by engineering sector at Tk 107.05 crore.

On the other hand, General Insurance has had its best days as a sector. In this sector, 36 companies rose against a decline, while the remaining four remained unchanged.

Shares of the 380 companies traded on the day, of which 156 firms gained, 132 issues lost and 92 companies remained unchanged.

Shares of Beximco Limited were the most-traded by value on the DSE as its shares worth Tk 81.93 crore were traded on the day.

Fortune Shoes, which was the second most-traded stock, had a turnover of Tk 55.12 crore followed by LafargeHolcim, Malek Spinning, IPDC Finance, BSC, KDS Accessories, BATBC, Intraco Refueling and Olympic Industries.

Meanwhile, the overall index CASPI of the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) increased over 56 points to 18,369 and securities worth Tk 24.74 crore were traded on the day.