Stocks modestly recover after six weeks of losses

Stocks were back in the green in the past week, ending six consecutive weeks of losses.

The market broke the losing streak mainly on the back of low cap sectors, brokers say.

The benchmark index, DSEX, settled at 5,515, up by 99 points or 1.84 percent, modestly recovering from about 500 points lost in the past six weeks.

The Shariah-based index DSES closed at 2,112, gaining over 22 points or 1.85 percent to 1,248 and the blue-chip index DS30 rose over 46 points or 2.92 percent to 2,112.

The DSE’s weekly turnover surged 54 percent to around Tk 3,596 crore over the previous shortened week’s Tk 2,335 crore. The daily average turnover stood at Tk 719 crore, a rise of 23 percent from the previous week.

Beximco Ltd was the week’s most traded stock, accounting for 15.67 percent of the total turnover. It was followed by Robi, British American Tobacco Company Bangladesh (BATBC), Beximco Pharmaceuticals, Lanka Bangla Finance, Summit Power, and GBB Power.

The low-cap food and allied sector was the best performer of the week, posting a rise of 5.90 percent, driven by Fine Foods and Taufika Foods, and Agro Industries, which rallied more than 11 percent and 10 percent respectively.

The IT sector came second soaring 5.8 percent, led by newly listed e-Generation that rose about 60 percent—the top performer of the week.

Among other major sectors, telecom moved up 3.5 percent, pharmaceutical 2 percent, bank1.8 percent, and energy 0.7 percent.

The BATBC was the week’s top loser, declining 63.54 percent due to the price adjustment after the record date in the past week.