Weekly review: Stocks break losing streak on appetite for banks

Stocks rebounded last week that ended on Thursday, snapping a five-week losing streak, as investors showed their buying appetite for financial stocks.

Market operators said the market closed higher after announcement of the monetary policy statement (MPS) of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) as optimistic investors were active in the market amid positive expectations.

A stockbroker said investors' concern over the MPS eased as the central bank unveiled the policy on Tuesday focusing on continuation of required support for attaining the targeted GDP (gross domestic product) growth.

"Some of the banks posted good profit in the second quarter, leading investors to channel some of their money into the banking stocks," said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.

The consolidated earnings per share (EPS) of a half of the listed banks increased during the last January-June period.

He noted that dividend expectations from companies after the June closing also encouraged some investors in taking position on stocks.

The week featured five trading sessions as usual. Of them, first two sessions closed lower while the last three ended higher.

Week-on-week, the DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 94 points or 1.78 per cent to settle at 5,399.

"Buying of shares mostly from banking, financial institutions and textile stocks contributed to the market upturn," said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.

Accordingly, the banking sector posted the highest gain of 6.0 per cent, followed by textile with 2.90 per cent and financial institutions 2.40 per cent.

The two other indices also ended higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 9.0 points to finish at 1,899 and the DSE Shariah index gained 2.32 points to end at 1,262.

Turnover, another indicator of the market, however, declined and the total turnover on the DSE amounted to Tk 34.29 billion against Tk 44.55 billion in the week before.

The daily turnover averaged Tk 6.85 billion, which was 23 per cent lower than the previous week's average of Tk 8.90 billion.

The textile sector dominated the week's turnover chart, grabbing 22 per cent of the week's total turnover, closely followed by engineering with 21 per cent and pharmaceuticals 10 per cent.

According to International Leasing Securities, the market rebounded strongly snapping the five-week losing streak amid declaration of a growth-supportive monetary policy for the first-half of the fiscal year 2018-19.

The stockbroker noted that banking, financial institution and textile sectors' stocks drew the investors' attention while paper, service and cement sectors' stocks observed liquidation in the week.

The market capitalisation of the DSE went up by 0.94 per cent as it was Tk 3,832 billion on the opening day of the week while it rose to Tk 3,868 billion on Thursday.

Of the 342 traded issues, 181 closed higher, 132 ended lower and 27 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor.

United Power was the week's most traded stock with 3.66 million shares worth Tk 1.21 billion changing hands.

The other turnover leaders were BBS Cables with Tk 1.20 billion, Saiham Textile Tk 1.08 billion, Fortune Shoes Tk 947 million and KDS Accessories Tk 756 million.

Renwick Jajneswar was the week's best performer, posting a gain of 41 per cent while Meghna Pet Industries was the worst loser, losing 27 per cent.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended higher with the CSE All Share Price Index -- CASPI -- soaring 219 points to settle at 16,592.

The Selective Categories Index -- CSCX -- also jumped 134 points to close at 10,043 points.

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