The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) witnessed gains for the third second consecutive week that ended Thursday, reflecting a healthy sign of slowly regaining the stability of the market from a nine-week slump. The DSE General Index (DGEN), the benchmark index, gained 47 points or about 2 percent to close at 2,850 at the closing of the week on Thursday.

The All Share Price Index (DSI) increased marginally by 9 points or 0.37 percent to close at 2,407 points while the DSE-20 index of selective shares 32 points or 1.34 percent to close at 2,442 points.

The uptrend was, however, based on speculative retail investments while the trade concentration was mainly on 15-20 stocks only. Market players warned small retail investors of losing money if the few shares go through deep price correction. "More than 80 percent of the investment mostly by retail investors went on speculative side," DSE chief executive officer Dr Salahuddin Ahmed Khan told UNB.

He said the country's prime bourse is still dominated by the bank shares, but they received poor investment during the recent uptrend. A fund manager said the market was slowly regaining the stability with a bit healthy volume of trade giving a good signal to the investors. But, he said, the concern is that half of the trade was concentrating on only 15-20 shares. "This is not a very healthy sign," he said, adding that it would pull the price of the few shares beyond their intrinsic value. "The concentration on a few shares may be giving short-term gains, but in case of any deep correction would cause financial losses to the retail investors," said the fund manager. He added that the market has been retail-driven and consequently the possibility of volatility in the market is quite high.

During the last week, the total turnover increased by 25 percent to Tk 17.30 billion, a daily average of Tk 3.46 billion, from Tk 13.80 billion in the previous week. The price earning of the stocks increased by about 2 percent in the week to 20.63 as compared to 20.26 of the previous week. Market capitalisation increased by less than one percent to Tk 994 billion last week from Tk 988 billion in the previous week. The turnover leaders of the week were Titas Gas, BEXIMCO, ACI Limited, ICB 2nd NRB, GrameenS2, Lankabangla Finance Company, AIMS 1st Mutual Fund, Beximco Pharma, S. Alam CRST and Union Capital.

Saleh Carpet has been the top gainer of the week with 59 percent increase in the prices of its shares by closing price, though a DSE investigation revealed Thursday said the company's registered corporate office in Chittagong remained closed since 2003.

Only three "A" category shares-ICB 2nd NRB, Pragati Insurance and AIMS 1st Mutual Fund - were among the top 10 gainers of the week while one from "B" category (Sino Bangla), one from "N" category (GrameenS2) and five from "Z" category ( Saleh Carpet, Shinepukur Holdings, Progressive Life Insurance, BD Luggage and Beximco Fisheries).

Top losers were Rupali Bank, BCIL, Sonargaon Textiles, ICB Islamic Bank Limited, Maq Enterprise, Samorita Hospital, Lexco, Amam Sea Food, Safko Spinnings and Standard Ceramic.