Net overseas investment in the Dhaka Stock Exchange hit a fresh all time high of Tk 572.08 crore in April as a number of corporate declarations of multinational companies in the month and decline in prices of other scrip since January attracted them to the market.
The foreign investors during the period bought shares worth Tk 876.43 crore and sold shares worth Tk 304.35 crore, DSE data showed.
The earlier highest single month net foreign investment in the bourse was Tk 339.49 crore in June last year when overseas investors bought shares worth Tk 339.49 crore and sold shares worth Tk 58.30 crore with the total turnover standing at Tk 453.21 core.
The previous highest monthly net investment by the overseas investors was Tk 251 crore in July 2007.
Market operators said that foreign investment in the market was increasing as the price level of stocks was in a lucrative range following the market crash and dull period in the last three years.
They said overseas investors might have invested heavily in shares of multinational companies as some those declared ‘attractive dividends’ on the back of rise in profits.
Besides, the international merger news of cement maker Lafarge and Holcim and drug maker GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis also attracted foreign investors in Dhaka stocks.
Besides, Bangladesh Bank last year allowed the brokers to share broker commission with their foreign counterparts which encouraged the brokers to bring in foreign investment.
The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission is also preparing a set of incentives for the foreign investors to increase their participation in the country’s ailing capital market.
The benchmark key index of the DSE, DSEX, had declined to 4,466.08 points on March 24 declining from 4,845.08 points in February 6.
Following some Bangladesh Bank steps by the end on January this year and in March to control banks’ capital market exposure, investors became shaky over the market which resulted in decline in share prices.
Former Bangladesh Merchant Bankers Association president Mohammad A Hafiz told New Age, ‘We have seen that the key index of the bourse declined to 4,400 points level in March which might have attracted the overseas investors to increase their participation on the trading floor to acquire low-priced stocks.’
‘We have seen overseas investors in increasing participation during the dullness in the market and decline during the bullish trend,’ he said.
As the MNCs make good profits in Bangladesh and issue good dividend, overseas investors might have invested in such stocks, he said.
Overseas investors bought shares worth Tk 327.05 crore in February against their sales of shares worth Tk 206 crore. The figures declined to Tk 205.27 crore and Tk 108.30 crore respectively in March.
The monthly turnover of the overseas investors at the bourse increased to Tk 1,180.79 crore in April compared to Tk 313.58 crore in the previous month.
Net overseas investment at the DSE declined to Tk 96.96 crore in March compared with Tk 121.04 crore in February.
-With New Age input
