Stocks extend winning streak for 2nd week

Stocks extended the winning streak for the second week in a row that ended Thursday, the last week of the just concluded fiscal year, as investors showed their buying appetite on large-cap stocks.

Analysts said the market maintained its bullish trend amid rising turnover as investors injected fresh funds into stocks to avail the tax benefit in the just concluded fiscal year coupled with positive impact of VAT policy reversal and other budgetary changes.

Following the wide-spread criticism over proposed hike in the excise duty on bank-balance and uniform 15 per cent VAT law, the government finally shelved the new VAT law for the next two fiscal years. The government also reduced the excise duty on bank-balance for small savers.

The week comprised only two trading sessions as the market remained closed for first three days of the week on the occasion of to Eid-ul-Fitr, the biggest religious festival of the Muslims. All two trading sessions closed higher.

Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 56.97 points or 1.0 per cent to settle at 5,656.

"The market is continuing the upward momentum having passed the 5,550 resistance level in the last week for the fiscal year 2016-17," commented LankaBangla Securities, a stockbroker, in its weekly market analysis.

The stockbroker noted that bullish mentality was prevalent in the market as the deadline for investment tax benefit ended and positive impact of VAT policy reversal and other budgetary changes were seen.

The two other indices -- the DS30 index and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) -- followed the suit to close at 2,084 and 1,297, after advancing 12.40 points and 10.90 points respectively.

The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also finished higher with its Selective Categories Index, CSCX, advancing 101 points or 0.96 per cent to settle at 10,591.

International Leasing Securities, a stockbroker, said, "The market closed higher as optimistic investors were reshuffling their portfolios ahead of June closing".

The stockbroker noted that postponement of the uniform 15 per cent VAT law and reduces in the excise duty on bank deposit in the final budget allured the sideline investors to inject fresh fund in the market.

"Buoyancy of shares mostly from textile, food, telecom and bank sectors contributed to the upsurge in indices in the week and key index crossed 5,600 points after two months in DSE," said the stockbroker.

The total turnover for the week stood at Tk 14.29 billion on DSE, registering a decline of 54 per cent over the previous week's total value of Tk 31.04 billion as the week saw only two trading sessions instead previous week's five. Block transaction contributed Tk 696 million to the total turnover value.

Accordingly, the daily turnover averaged at Tk 7.14 billion, which was 15 per cent higher than the previous week's average of Tk 6.21 billion.

Textile sector kept dominance in turnover chart, contributing 18 per cent of the week's total turnover value, followed by bank 15 per cent and fuel & power 12 per cent.

The total market cap of the DSE also advanced 0.77 per cent last week as it was Tk 3,772 billion on the opening day of the week, while stood at Tk 3,801 billion on closing day of the week.

The large-cap sectors showed positive performance throughout the week except non-bank financial institutions which lost 0.66 per cent.

Food & allied sector posted the highest gain of 1.59 per cent, followed by telecommunication 1.32 per cent, bank 1.26 per cent, fuel & power 0.73 per cent, engineering 0.59 per cent and pharmaceuticals 0.51 per cent.

LankaBangla Finance topped the week's turnover chart with shares of Tk 666 million changing hands, followed by Regent Textile, Doreen Power, CVO Petrochemical Refinery and Beximco.

The Peninsula Chittagong was the week's highest gainer, posting a 17.39 per cent rise, while Savar Refractories was the worst loser, losing 7.25 per cent.

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