Lead indices at the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) edged up in the first week of the New Year that ended Thursday with turnover rising significantly at the principal bourse following increased transactions by relevant investors, dealers said.
DSEX, the prime index of the DSE, edged up by 46.44 points or 1.0 per cent to end the week at 4,676.08 while the DS30 index, comprising blue chips, rose 20.70 points or 1.18 per cent to 1,771.29 and the Shariah Index DSES rose 19.78 points or 1.79 per cent to 1,126.90, against the previous week.
At the CSE its Selective Categories Index CSCX advancing 113.19 points or 1.32 per cent to end at 8,685.31.
Of the usual five trading sessions, first two slid while the next two closed higher with significant rise in turnover, while last one edged lower.
During the week, the market participation was encouraging as the total turnover for the week at the principal bourse DSE stood at Tk 27.13 billion, which was Tk 19.38 billion in the week before. The average daily turnover was Tk 5.42 billion, which was 40 per cent higher than the previous week's average of Tk 3.87 billion.
Engineering came out to be the turnover leader followed by fuel and power and pharmaceuticals, capturing 21 per cent, 19 per cent and 14 per cent respectively of the week's total turnover.
Analysts said the positive expectation regarding market sentiment might have encouraged the sideline investors to inject fresh funds in the market, keeping the market turnover buoyant.
"The positive expectation regarding the macro-economic as well as capital market prospect, supported by eased political tension and rebounded export earnings, stocks turned around form middle of the week," said International Leasing Securities, a stockbroker," said International Leasing Securities, a stockbroker, in its weekly analysis.
IDLC Investments, a merchant bank, said "The market started the maiden week of the year in a negative tone, from which it strongly turned around in the later part of the week, riding on some positive macro-economic developments and New Year enthusiasm".
The merchant bank noted that investors enlightened their investment outlook, getting hope from news like -- overall export growth of 6.4 per cent year-on-year in 2015, 2.5 per cent year-on-year growth in remittance during last December.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh experienced a massive growth of 16.8 per cent in export to one of the major markets USA during July-November 2015, the merchant bank said. In the meantime, global markets passed a shaky maiden week of 2016, as Chinese market fueled fear, by posting two days trading halts due to steep decline, said the merchant bank.
Lankabangla Securities, a stockbroker, "Despite the index crossed its resistance at 4,660-mark, upward trend of the market slowed down in the last trading sessions of the week".
Top gainers and losers of the week mostly consist of small-cap companies. Among the large-cap shares, United Power and Titas Gas posted return of 15 per cent and 5.7 per cent respectively. However, BATBC lost 4.3 per cent of its market capitalization.
The gainers took a strong lead over the losers as out of 325 issues traded, 188 closed higher, 114 lower and 23 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor last week.
The market capitalisation of the DSE edged up by 0.76 per cent as it was Tk 3,159.75 billion on the opening day of the week and it stood at Tk 3,183.79 billion on closing day of the week.
United Power Generation and Distribution Company dominated the week's turnover chart with shares worth Tk 1.22 billion changing hands during the week followed by Beximco Tk 1.20 billion, Beximco Pharma Tk 993 million, Emerald Oil Tk 797 million and IFAD Autos Tk 711 million.
Miracle Industries was the week's best performer, posting a rise of 30.59 per cent while Western Marine Shipyard was the week's worst loser, plunging by 12.68 per cent.