Stocks passed a flat week with high volatility after four straight weeks of falling.
Profit booking on some stocks took place in the past week that ended Thursday, as investors switched off their holdings one sector to the other.
The benchmark index DSEX crossed the threshold of 4,400-mark and settled at 4,430, gaining 46 points or 1%.
Shariah Index DSES rose 20 points or 2% to close at 993. The blue-chip comprising DS30 soared 1% to 1,609.
Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index, CSCX, rallied 34 points or 0.4% to close the week at 8,469. However, trading activities still remained sluggish. The week’s average daily turnover for the week stood at Tk260 crore, registering an increase of more than 11% over the previous week.
“Budgetary expectations continued to energise investors throughout the week,” said IDLC Investments, in its weekly market analysis.
Throughout the week, it said, investors preferred shuffling across sectors and, stocks and portfolio re-balancing was prominent on the basis of investors’ preference to large cap stocks.
With supportive news of foreign fund release of annual development programme and few developments in the Padma bridge construction, cement and engineering sectors were at the centre of investors’ attention in the past week.
IDLC said back and forth, usual reversion and profit booking took place infrequently. Lanka Bangla Securities said though the markets close marginally higher, the market is yet to confirm its direction.
It said investors are eagerly waiting for the upcoming budget to be announced next month to sense the government’s mentality whether they will help spur growth.
“The market turnover is still low, which shows investors’ cautious stance about fresh investment.”
Cement sector was up by over 8%, fuelled by news of government’s allocation Tk8,100 crore for Padma Bridge.
The losers, however, took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 303 issues traded during the week, 168 advanced, 112 declined and 23 issues remained unchanged.
Throughout the week, large cap segment was the centre of investors’ preference and gained by over 3%.
Sectoral performance was mixed in the past week. Food and allied was the biggest gainer as it posted a rise of over 5.6%, followed by telecommunications and pharmaceuticals which advanced almost 4% and 3% respectively. Non-banking financial institutions, fuel and power, and bank closed lower.
Lafarge Surma Cement dominated the week’s top turnover chart with shares worth Tk124 crore changing hands in the past week followed by Grameenphone, Square Pharmaceuticals, BSRM Steels and Mercantile Bank.