Stocks end positive on better half-yearly data

Stocks closed positive for the second week as better than expected half-yearly earnings declarations lure investors to pour money in the market.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, ended the day at 4,427.16 points, after gaining 35 points or 0.80 percent. It was the last trading week on the premier bourse before a nine-day Eid vacation.
LankaBangla Securities said: “The market seems to be getting back some sort of momentum helped by good corporate earnings of listed companies in the second quarter.”
“Multinational companies performed well this quarter. Some of the banks and cement companies also did well. Earnings of some flagship companies like GP, BATBC, Lafarge Surma Cement, Bata Shoe and Heidelberg infused optimism into the investors,” the stockbroker said.
Most of the companies are yet to declare earnings, it said, adding that overall earnings declarations by listed companies will steer the market direction after Eid.
Improved half-yearly earning disclosure and expectations on the upcoming monetary policy statement ended the downcast tone prevailing in the stockmarket in the last couple of weeks, IDLC Investments said.
Turnover increased on the investors' meticulous re-balancing of portfolio ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr, the investment banker said.
The central bank yesterday announced the monetary policy for the first half of the current fiscal year with highest focus on containing inflation, keeping the key policy rates unchanged and monetary growth ceiling slightly reduced.
Bangladesh Bank also forecasted the economic growth to be between 6.2 and 6.5 percent in 2014-15, while the government's budgetary target was 7.3 percent. The economic growth in the last fiscal was 6.1 percent.
Daily turnover of the week averaged Tk 321 crore, registering a 54.64 percent increase over the previous week's average of Tk 207 crore.
Gainers took a modest lead over the losers by 148 to 116 while 43 remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
Among the major sectors: pharma was the only sector which closed in the red with a 1.69 percent loss.
All other large cap sectors closed in the green. Telecoms appreciated by a staggering 7.43 percent due to GP's gain of 7.9 percent.
Fuel and power; and food and allied gained by 2.29 percent and 1.14 percent respectively. The financial sector edged up by 0.93 percent and 0.94 percent respectively.
Beximco dominated the week's top turnover chart for four weeks in a row with 213 crore shares worth Tk 213 crore changing hands, followed by GP, Square Pharma, Shahjibazar Power Company and Lafarge Surma Cement.
Shahjibazar was the week's top gainer, posting a rise of 31.03 percent, while Navana CNG was the week's worst loser, plunging by 9.54 percent.