FE Report

Dhaka stocks kept shining for the eighth successive week, which ended Thursday, in their longest winning streak for the first time in more than two years.

The benchmark index continued to create new records as the market shrugged off securities regulator's tightening of credit facilities on some risky scrips.

The measure, however, slowed down volume of transaction that dropped 14.45 per cent during the week and pushed majority issues down.

In the week, the benchmark Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) General Index (DGEN) soared 46.33 points or 1.40 per cent to 3,364.26, which is a record high.

The broader DSE All Shares Price Index (DSI) gained 32.18 points or 1.16 per cent to 2816.26. The DSE-20 blue chips index closed at 2253.23 with a meager loss of 4.74 points or 0.21 per cent.

The market edged lower in the second and third session as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) imposed a ban on credit facilities to Aftab Automobiles and mutual funds terming them risky scrips, and some profit booking was, however, seen towards middle of the week.

But in next day, the SEC has reversed its decision on Aftab, brining back confidence among the investors.

Investors have largely ignored the SEC's credit-freezing order in the fourth and fifth sessions as the market rebounded during the sessions.

"It showed a maturity of our investors. They were opting for shares that were fundamentally strong. There was hardly any foolish chase for the weak issues in the last two sessions," said an analyst commenting on last two sessions' gain.

Banking and mutual fund stocks lost their luster while energy sectors, particularly oil companies, engineering and textile performed better during the week.

The week's daily average turnover came down to Tk 9.68 billion against the previous week's Tk 11.32 billion.

Losers beat the gainers strongly as out of 255 issues traded, 91 went into the positive territory, 150 into the negative, one remained unchanged and 13 were not traded.

Bextex, the textile arm of Beximco Group, retained the top turnover leader for the second straight week. Its shares worth Tk 4.40 billion changed hands.

Titas Gas, Beximco Ltd, Jamuna Oil, DESCO, Summit Power, Aftab Automobiles, Navana CNG Limited, Aims First Mutual Fund and Meghna Petroleum Limited were the other top turnover leaders of the week.

Padma Oil, Bextex, Jamuna Oil, Olympic Industries, Modern Dyeing, Renata, Jamuna Bank, Meghna Petroleum, Uttara Finance and Fine Foods Limited were the leading gainers of the week.

The week's major losers were CMC Kamal, Libra Infusions Limited, Gulf Foods, Northern Jute, Miracle Ind, Meghna Pet, Chittagong Vegetable, Shaympur Sugar, Rahima Food and Desh Garments.