The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) witnessed fall for the second consecutive week that ended Thursday, as the opening day (Sunday) trading suffered a setback amid panic generated from the financial crisis-induced global stock market fall.

The country's premier bourse, however, bounced back and continued for the following two consecutive days almost recovering the losses. But, marginal declines during the rest two days of the 5-day week again pushed down the benchmark index.

The DSE management deserves thanks as they succeeded in convincing investors through a hurriedly called press conference that the local capital market has no link with the international capital and financial markets.

Brokers said the setback, in default, might help turn the eyes of the investors from few securities while new issues slowly came to the forefront. "Most of the highly concentrated issues have already been overpriced while many fundamentally good stocks lying undervalued for long," said one of the brokers.

The investors took profit from the overpriced issues and immediately went for taking position over the undervalued items. "This is a very healthy sign for the market," said another broker.

He, however, cautioned investors that dominance of shares having poor fundamentals still hunting the investors, may be giving some quick profits in the short term, but posing risks of losing money.

Meanwhile, the DSE management last week launched a campaign from Chittagong Wednesday to aware investors of the risks involved in running after speculations.

During the week's trading, the DSE General Index (DGEN), the benchmark index, shed 18 points or 0.61 percent to close at 2,919 points while the All Share Price Index (DSI) declined 18 points or 0.73 percent to close at 2,418.

The DSE-20 index of selective shares, however, gained 28 points or 1.15 percent to close at 2,470 points, reflecting investors' hunch for trying undervalued issues.

The total turnover during the 5-day week recorded 39 percent growth to Tk 27.25 billion over the previous 4-day week's Tk 19.64 billion. The daily average turnover of the past week also grew 11 percent to Tk 5.45 billion over the previous week.

The country's premier bourse hit the highest record of daily turnover at Tk 5.91 billion on Sunday and second highest of Tk 5.64 billion on Thursday.

Market capialisation shed 0.54 percent to Tk 1.016 trillion during the week from Tk 1.021 trillion in the previous week.

Beximco Pharma, Titas Gas, Beximco, Square Pharma, ACI Limited, Lanka Bangla Finance, Summit Power, Aims 1st Mutual Fund, DESCO and GrameenS2 were the turnover leaders of the week.

Top gainers of the week were Beximco Fisheries, Shinepukur Holdings, Maq Paper, Metro Spinning, Dulamia Cotton, Golden Son, BCIL, M Hossain Garments, Safko Spinnings and Saiham Textiles.

Top losers were ICB, Delta-Brac Housing, Bionic Sea Food, BIFC, Modern Cement, Prime Islami Life, Meghna Condensed Milk, Progressive Life Insurance, Modern Industries and Meghna Life Insurance.