DSEX hits a 42-month high on first trading session in lockdown

On the first trading day during the ongoing countrywide strict lockdown, DSEX – the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) climbed to a 42-month high.

In spite of lockdown worries, the DSEX jumped by 1.12% or 69 points to close at 6,219 on Monday, which was the highest since 8 January 2018 when the DSEX closed at 6,026 points.

A senior officer of a brokerage firm said investors are more confident to invest in the capital market as the market has kept trading during the ongoing lockdown, although it was closed for 66 days amid Covid-induced general holidays last year.

As most businesses are closed due to the lockdown, people are pouring their money into the capital market in the hope of good returns, he observed.

He, however, suggested investors to be cautious about investing in junk shares, which increased immensely without any reason in the last couple of days.

He also urged the securities regulator to intensify surveillance over the price hike of junk shares.

EBL Securities said in its daily market review that investors positively reacted to the government's decision to allow the whitening of money through capital market investment.

On 29 June, the government finally allowed the whitening of undisclosed money by investing in stocks and other listed securities for the second consecutive fiscal year.

In the 2020-21 fiscal year, the government allowed undisclosed money in the stock market on condition of paying a flat 10% tax on the total amount while regular income tax goes as high as 25%.

This time, the government has made the whitening tax a flat 25% on the total and also imposed a new 5% penalty on the total tax amount.

Meanwhile, the turnover at the DSE also increased by 10% to reach Tk1,551.48 crore in the reduced trading hours on Monday.

During the lockdown, the trading hours at the bourses have been brought down to three hours starting from 10 am.

The government has extended the lockdown for another seven days till 14 July, as the death toll has kept on rising sharply.

At the end of the Monday session, 243 companies' share price advanced, while that of 119 firms declined and 11 remained unchanged at the DSE.

Textile sector companies saw a sharp rise in their share prices, as the country's apparel exports posted a year-on-year increase of 12.55% to reach $31.45 billion in the 2020-2021 fiscal year.

In its daily market review, the EBL Securities said investors have been showing immense interest in the textile sector as they hope earnings of apparel exports will go up in the coming days as the USA and the European economies rebounded with mass vaccinations.

On Monday, investors got the highest 6.1% return from the textile sector, which was followed by service and real estate, IT and Mutual Fund.

The textile sector contributed 23.71% of the DSE total turnover on the day, which was the highest among all the sectors.

Beximco Limited grabbed the top position in script wise turnover chart with trade worth Tk75.79 crore, which was followed by ML Dyeing and Keya Cosmetics.

Six textile companies made it to the top ten gainers' list at the DSE on the day, while Khan Brothers PP Woven, Sonali Life Insurance and Yeakin Polymer led the chart with 10% price hike.

Monno Fabrics was the worst share on Monday as investors sold this share to book capital gain.

The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange gained 240 points to close at 18,035 on Monday.