Dhaka stocks jumped on Sunday with the DSE general index gaining 120.37 points amid a bull run that pushed the bourse’s key index to its new high, crossing the 8,300-point mark for the first time ever.
The benchmark general index of Dhaka Stock Exchange advanced by 1.47 per cent to close at 8,307.70 points on the day. The index crossed the 8,100-point mark for the first time ever on Wednesday.
Most of the banks continued to gain on the day as the investors are hoping to get huge profits as they wait for the year-end corporate results of the institutions, said a stockbroker.
Share prices of non-bank financial institutions, insurance companies, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, engineering issues and Grameenphone also advanced as investors went for buying spree ahead of holidays for Eid-ul-Azha, he added.
Stockbrokers said despite the general strike called by opposition party, BNP, many stockbrokers logged on the trade server in the morning with adequate buying and selling orders.
As per DSE rule, the trading can continue if one-thirds of the affiliated brokers logged on to server at least 30 minutes before 11am trading time.
A stockbroker, however, told New Age that there was verbal instruction from government high ups to the brokerage houses and merchant bankers to start trading on the day and keep the market upbeat.
Market experts observed that the gap between demand and supply continued to increase on the day with the huge increase in prices of shares.
‘The situation is not good for the capital market. There should be some mechanism to put a brake in the ever rising stocks,’ said an expert.
Akter H Sannamat, managing director of Prime Finance and Investment, said investors’ buying spree pulled the market on the day.
He, however, said investors invested on overheated stocks in expectation of short-term gains.
Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, who teaches finance at Dhaka University, said investors expected that after Eid holidays share prices of most of the companies would gain further.
DSE president Shakil Rizvi said investors tried to make short-term gains.
Yawer Sayeed, the top official of asset management firm Aims of Bangladesh, said price-earning ratios of most of the companies marked a sharp rise. The market condition became risky for investors, especially for small ones, he said.
Of the total 240 issues traded on the DSE, 170 advanced, 67 declined, and three remained unchanged.
The daily turnover on the bourse was Tk 2,202.71 crore, down by Tk 49.99 crore from the previous day.
Southeast Bank topped the turnover leaders with 1.6 lakh shares valued at Tk 93.40 crore traded on the day.
The rest of the turnover leaders were Peoples Leasing and Financial Services, NCC Bank, Shahjalal Islami Bank, AB Bank, Mercantile Bank, Social Islami Bank, Beximco, United Commercial Bank, and Confident Cement.
Desh Garments was the day’s biggest gainer, posting a 19.5-per cent rise in its share prices while Atlas Bangladesh was the worst loser.
