The net foreign investment at the Dhaka Stock Exchange rose by 145.13 per cent in the just-concluded year 2013 from that in the previous year as record fall in the stock
prices on the bourse lured overseas investors.
It increased to Tk 1,942.89 crore from Tk 792.59 crore in 2012.
‘Share prices were wiped off by the market crash in 2010-2011 and a prolonged downtrend in the subsequent years. The plunge in stock prices attracted foreign investors to come to the capital market. They [foreign investors] are expecting rise in stock prices in the coming days,’ Bangladesh Merchant Bankers Association former president Mohammad A Hafiz told New Age.
He said, ‘The price earning ratios of the stocks listed with the country’s bourses are still very low compared with those of the stocks listed with other bourses in the Asia region.’
‘We are expecting further increase in the foreign investment on our country’s bourses,’ he said.
In 2013, the turnover made by overseas investors at the DSE increased to Tk 3,362.15 crore from Tk 1,904.19 crore in the previous year.
In the year overseas investors bought shares worth Tk 2,652.50 crore and sold shares worth Tk 709.61 crore.
The market made a boom in 2010 when the DGEN had skyrocketed by 82.87 per cent to 8,290.41 points, with the peak of 8,918.51 points reached on December 5.
The aftershock of the crash has been continuing since then as the DGEN lost 3,032 points in 2011 and 1,038 points in 2012.
DGEN, the old key index of the bourse, made a five-year record low on March 1, 2013 hitting 3,610.42 points which was lowest since November 15, 2009 when the index was at 3,383.23 points.
In June last year, the net foreign investment at the DSE increased to Tk 336.59 crore which was the highest in the bourse’s history.
The foreign investors in the month bought shares worth Tk 339.49 crore and sold shares worth Tk 58.30 crore with the total turnover standing at Tk 4,53.21 crore.
The previous highest monthly net investment by the overseas investors was Tk 251 crore in July 2007.
-With New Age input
