Stocks rise on hope for improved business climate

Stock prices soared yesterday, buoyed by investor optimism on improved business and political climate after the national poll Monday.

Beximco companies, some sponsors of which are associated with the winner party Awami League in the election, steered the upbeat as investors, mainly retailers, ventured to bag shares, also in the banks, fuel and power sectors.

“Investors are positive as they optimist about improved politico-business climate in the days to come,” said Arif Khan, an analyst at IDLC Finance.

The benchmark DGEN or DSE General Index or DGEN surged 66.73 points, or 2.44 percent to 2795.33. The DSI or All Shares Price Index rose 50.96 points, or 2.25 percent to 2309.35. The DSE-20 blue chip index gained 36.99 points, or 1.61 percent to 2328.71.

Gainers beat losers 175 to 50. Five issues closed unchanged. Turnover reached the highest since mid- October. Total turnover rose to Tk 430.94 crore yesterday from Tk 290.18 crore the previous trading day (Sunday).

Beximco Pharma led the gain followed by Summit Power, Titas Gas, Beximco and Shinepukur Ceramics.

Beximco Pharma, one of the market heavyweights, climbed 10.69 percent to Tk 167. Summit Power, second leader in the turnover board, surged 14.76 percent to Tk 966. State-run Titas Gas added 2.88 percent to Tk 499. Shares of Beximco and Shinepukur Ceramics also ended higher.

Of the other issues on the turnover table, Grameens 2 mutual fund, ACI Formulations and Uttara Bank closed higher. National Bank and ACI slipped.

On the Chittagong Stock Exchange, CASPI or All Share Price Index added 2.32 percent to 8692.7457. The CSE 30 advanced 1.78 percent to 7566.94. The CSCX or Selective Index also finished higher.

Dhaka stocks surge for 4th day

Dhaka stocks surged on Tuesday amid a strong participation of institutional and big individual investors after the Monday�s national polls, market operators said.
The general index of Dhaka Stock Exchange gained 66.73 points, or 2.45 per cent, to close at 2795.34, while its blue chips index, DSE20, advanced by 36.99 points, or 1.61 per cent, to finish at 2328.71.
A merchant bank official said the market witnessed a strong participation of institutional and retail investors, expecting a healthy return in days to come. The Monday�s national polls lifted the investors� confidence level, he said.
The institutional investors, who already had completed their year-end loan adjustments, also started to inject funds into the market, signalling a recoup, he added.
With the Tuesday�s rise, Dhaka stocks posted gain for the fourth consecutive trading days.
Stock market analysts said the market got back pace in the last week as investors bought shares availing themselves of the lower prices of the securities after a two-and-a-half-month lull.
The DSE turnover increased to Tk 430.95 crore on Tuesday from the Sunday�s Tk 290.18 crore. The market indicator crossed Tk 400-crore mark for the first time since October 21.
Trading at the Dhaka and Chittagong bourses remained closed Monday due to the 9th parliamentary elections. The bourses will remain closed today due to a bank holiday.
Of the total 230 issues traded on Tuesday, 175 advanced, 50 declined and five remained unchanged.
Beximco Pharmaceuticals topped the turnover leaders with a total transaction of Tk 43.46 crore. Summit Power was the second biggest turnover leader with Tk 39.27 crore.
Titas Gas, Beximco, Shinepukur Ceramics, Grameen Two Mutual Fund, National Bank, ACI, ACI Formulations, and Uttara Bank were the rest of the day�s top 10 turnover leader.
The day also saw a significant rise in share prices at the Chittagong Stock Exchange.
The CSE selective categories index gained 141.16 points, or 2.55 per cent, to close at 5680.59, while its blue chips index, CSE30, advanced by 132.69 points, or 1.78 per cent, to finish at 7566.95.
Of the total 139 issues traded on the CSE floor, 107 posted gains, 30 dropped and two remained unchanged.
Turnover at the CSE went up to Tk 59.94 crore from the Sunday�s Tk 51.90 crore.

DSE gen INDEX[30-12-08]

UTTARABANK

The bank has informed that the Board of Directors of the Bank has decided to purchase floor space measuring 4,600 sft (approx) at the 1st floor of "Tajmahal Tower" 66, Moulavibazar, Dhaka for accommodation of Bank's Moulavibazar branch, Dhaka as well as Zonal Office, Dhaka South Zone at a cost of Tk. 4,60,00,000.00 (Taka four crore sixty lac) only excluding registration, utility and other charges."

15 companies go public in 2008

Staff Correspondent

A total of 15 companies have got listed with the country’s bourses, floating initial public offerings and offloading shares on the bourses through direct listing regulations, in 2008 that ends tomorrow.
Five of the 15 companies – Jamuna Oil Company, Meghna Petroleum, Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company, ACI Formulations, and Shinepukur Ceramics – made their way into the capital market through direct listing regulations, while the rest got listed through issuing IPOs worth around Tk 275.4 crore.
Of these 10 companies, Fidelity Assets and Securities Company raised Tk 14.06 crore, Continental Insurance Tk 9 crore, Delta-Brac Housing Tk 5 crore, ICB AMCL Second NRB Mutual Fund Tk 80 crore, Grameen Two Mutual Fund Tk 15.34 crore, First Security Bank Tk 115 crore, Summit Alliance Port Tk 10 crore, Takaful Islami Insurance Tk 9 crore, Standard Insurance Tk 9 crore, and Northern General Insurance Company Tk 9 crore.
Jamuna Oil, Meghna Petroleum and Titas Gas, three state-owned enterprises, were listed through offloading their shares worth Tk 13.50 crore, Tk 12 crore and 214.12 crore respectively, while the private-sector companies ACI Formulations and Shinepukur Ceramics offloaded shares worth Tk 8.99 crore and Tk 35.01 crore respectively.
The shares of these five companies, however, were sold at prices a number of times their face values.
In 2007, a total of 14 companies raised Tk 492.39 crore by floating IPOs.
‘We have not received our expected response from the private-sector companies on issuing IPOs in 2008, when the stock market continued with its phenomenal growth starting from the first month of the previous year,’ said a senior official of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
SEC chairman Faruq Ahmad Siddiqi, however, hoped that the capital market would register further growth in the next couple of years, with telecom sector and good companies from other sectors offloading shares on the market. The introduction of book-building method of IPO pricing will contribute to the expected growth of the capital market, he said.
The SEC early this month approved the draft rules of book-building method for IPO pricing.
When the rules are finalised and come into effect, they are expected to result in a radical shake-up of the capital market.
Book-building is a mechanism where, during the period for which the book for the offer is open, the bids are collected from investors at various prices within the price band specified by the issuer.
Stock market experts said entrepreneurs of large private-sector companies thought under the existing fixed-price method they would not have received fair deals if they had floated IPOs. Introduction of book-building process of IPO pricing will encourage the private-sector companies to enter the country’s capital market.

Raising investment big challenge for next govt

Staff Correspondent

Desperately in need of much higher investments for infrastructure building and job creation, the next government is set to face difficulties in financing domestic investments and attracting foreign direct investment, given the global recession, suggest the latest economic trends.
Major contenders for power, in their polls manifestoes, have made a huge number of pledges, which will require significant increase both in public and private investments but they have not pointed out the sources of funding for meeting the costs of new ventures.
The world’s three key economic triangles — Japan, the European Union and the United States — which have accounted for about 35–40 per cent of the foreign direct investment inflows to developing Asia in recent years, have been afflicted with the economic recession.
Already in view of shortfall in supply of electricity and natural gas, the Board of Investment has limited its targets of attracting investments in industries, such as information technology, which do not consume much energy, say officials concerned.
However, the officials say, the new government would have the scope to invite investment in exploration of gas, setting up power plants and building infrastructure like highways and ports, although the newly-emerged challenge of global financial crisis has made it uncertain whether foreign investors would come up with initiatives.
In 2007, the country witnessed significant fall in investments due largely to the state of emergency and political uncertainty, apart from other problems of doing business.
The outgoing finance and planning adviser, AB Mirza Azizul Islam, has stressed the need for mobilising domestic resources for meeting the investment needs in the days to come. ‘It will be essential to increase public investments in infrastructure, including power and gas, subject to availability of money,’ he told newsmen in the past week, leaving a number of challenges for the next government.
The finance adviser also acknowledged that it would be hard for the next government to get access to adequate foreign exchange through exports, foreign aid and remittances, should the current recession prolongs beyond 2009.
The next government will need to invest over $8 billion (approximately Tk 55,000 crore) for commissioning various power projects to reach a target of generating 9,000 megawatts of electricity by 2012, according to a recent estimate by the Centre for Policy Dialogue.
‘FDI investors are reluctant to venture out during economic recession,’ noted a policy paper of the centre on the state of Bangladesh economy, adding that conducive investment environment and investment opportunities could induce some of them to look for alternative opportunities in countries such as Bangladesh.
Foreign investment remains a major concern for a least developed country like Bangladesh as, an international research on ‘Sources of FDI Flows to Developing Asia’ says, international trade and foreign direct investment are key determinants of trade and growth in much of the developing Asian region.
The flow of foreign direct investment into the country dropped 16 per cent to $666 million in 2007 from $793 million in 2006. The decline saw Bangladesh losing its ranking by one notch to 121st in inward FDI performance index and slip to 119th from 117th in the inward FDI potential index among 141 economies, according to the recent World Investment Report 2008 prepared by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
However, the private investment has registered a slow pace of growth in recent years – 17 per cent of gross domestic product in 2003-04 to 19.2 per cent of GDP in 2007-08.

Stocks pick up on election hopes

Fri, Dec 26th, 2008 4:11 pm BdST Dhaka, Dec 26 (bdnews24.com)�Stock exchanges of the country passed the last week on a positive note as investor confidence was boosted on hopes of a more stable market with the election just days away.

Market experts cited the end of uncertainty over the national polls as the reason behind the rise in confidence.

"Investors were mostly hesitant to bet money on fears of political instability as there were doubts about the general election," Abu Ahmed, an adviser of the Securities and Exchange Commission, told bdnews24.com.

Optimistic indicators for inflation and balance of trade also contributed to the rise in confidence, he added.

The benchmark DGEN or general index of Dhaka Stock Exchange surged 112.12 points, or 4.45 percent to 2,630.14 points while the DSI or all share price index jumped ended on 2,176.05 points, up by 92.06 points, or 4.42 percent.

Both the total and daily average turnover witnessed a 84.63 percent rise over the week. Total turnover on the DSE was Tk 9.87 billion from Tk 5.34 billion the previous week.

The daily average turnover jumped from Tk 1.33 billion to Tk 2.46 billion.

Of the traded 293 scrips on the DSE, 221 advanced, 27 declined and six held steady.

Chittagong Stock Exchange's selective categories index or CSCX finished up by 1.3 percent to 5,359.57 points. The all share price index or CASPI closed at 8,225.93 points, rising 1.19 points.

The port city bourse saw about 14.19 million shares worth Tk 1.62 billion traded against 7.53 million shares worth Tk 825 million the previous week.

Gainers outnumbered losers 103 to 46 of the 160 traded issues while 11 remained unchanged.

Total market capitalisation on the DSE marked a 3.41 percent rise to Tk 997.62 billion from Tk 964.75 billion a week ago.

Summit Power emerged as the turnover leader with just over 9.63 million trading volume of Tk 774.2 million accounting 7.84 percent of the week's total turnover.

The other turnover leaders were Beximco Pharma, ACI Formulations, Titas Gas, Beximco, Shinepukur Ceramics, Uttara Bank, ACI, National Bank and Grameen Mutual Fund One: Scheme Two.

Meanwhile Beximco topped the turnover leaders on the Chittagong Stock Exchange with 980,080 shares changing hands worth Tk 163 million.

Banks topped investors' favorable list, which is a common phenomenon of the market at this time of the year as dividend time approaches. Non-bank financial institutions and insurers followed.

Meanwhile, power and energy shares were almost steady with slight increase in prices following the previous week's rises as major political parties focused on the sector's development in their electoral promises.

Mutual fund and pharmaceuticals also witnessed gains.

Stocks gain before polls

Dhaka stocks gained significantly yesterday in the run up to the national polls slated for today.

The latest gains including yesterday's may be traced back to the heightened confidence among the investors who are very optimistic about the post-election market, market operators said.

"The investors are positively expecting a vibrant market under an elected government," said Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, chief executive officer of Dhaka Stock Exchange.

"Besides, the investors are also expecting good corporate declarations in the month of January from the companies that end their financial years in December," he added.

The benchmark index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSE General Index, went up 98.45 points, or 3.74 percent to 2,728.6 points. The DSE All Share Price Index also jumped 82.33 points, or 3.78 percent to 2,258.39 points.

The bourse will however remain closed today on the occasion of national polls.

Market looked bullish from the very onset. Within the first 30 minutes, it gained more than 45 points. After that the rate of gain slowed down slightly but it continued to gain for the rest of the day.

By the next 60 minutes it gained about 60 points on the opening index, which by the next another 60 minutes, gained close to 70 points.

In the following 60 minutes, the market gained additional 22 to 23 points. By the end of trading, the DGEN gained more than 98 points over the previous day.

A total of 1,85,94,183 shares worth Tk 290.18 crore changed hands on the premier bourse.

Most securities traded up on the DSE. Of the 231 traded issues, 203 advanced, 19 declined and nine remained unchanged.

Beximco Pharma topped the turnover leaders on the DSE with 19,08,150 traded shares worth Tk 28.69 crore. The other turnover leaders were Summit Power, Titas Gas, National Bank, Grameen Mutual Fund One: Scheme Two, ACI, Beximco, Shinepukur Ceramics, Uttara Bank and ACI Formulations.

Chittagong stocks also recorded a rally. The CSE Selective Categories Index jumped 179.84 points, or 3.35 percent to 5,539.42 points. The CSE All Share Price Index also went up 267.61 points, or 3.25 percent to 8,493.55 points.

A total of 42,55,526 shares worth Tk 51.89 crore changed hands on the Chittagong Stock Exchange. Of the 142 traded securities on the port city bourse, 132 advanced, eight declined and two remain unchanged.

Beximco Pharma topped the turnover leaders on the CSE with 8,00,650 traded shares worth Tk 12.04 crore.

Dhaka stocks soar ahead of polls

Staff Correspondent

Dhaka stocks soared Sunday due to a buying spree of investors ahead of today�s national polls.
Trading at the Dhaka and Chittagong bourses will remain closed today due to the 9th parliamentary elections.
The general index of Dhaka Stock Exchange gained 98.46 points, or 3.74 per cent, to close at 2728.60, while its blue chips index, DSE20, advanced by 95.57 points, or 4.35 per cent, to finish at 2291.72.
�The enthusiasm of investors is high ahead of the general elections,� said Mahmood Osman Imam, chairman of the finance department of Dhaka University.
He said institutional and retail investors increased their buying availing themselves of the lower prices of the securities after a two-and-a-half-month lull, expecting a healthy return in days to come. �The market got back pace in the last week as the investors bought shares, thinking that uncertainty centring the national polls is over,� said Imam.
A DSE stockbroker said the institutional investors, who already had completed their year-end loan adjustments, also started to inject funds into the market, signalling a recoup.
Of the total 231 issues traded, 203 advanced, 19 declined and nine remained unchanged.
Turnover at the DSE slightly decreased to Tk 290.18 crore from the Wednesday�s Tk 293.34 crore.
Beximco Pharmaceuticals topped the turnover leaders with a total transaction of Tk 28.69 crore. Summit Power was the second biggest turnover leader with Tk 17.23 crore.
Titas Gas, National Bank, Grameen Two Mutual Fund, ACI, Beximco, Shinepukur Ceramics, Uttara Bank, and ACI Formulations were the rest of the day�s top ten turnover leaders.
The day also saw a significant rise in share prices at the Chittagong Stock Exchange.
The CSE selective categories index gained 179.85 points, or 3.36 per cent, to close at 5539.42, while its blue chips index, CSE30, advanced by 280.35 points, or 3.92 per cent, to finish at 7434.25.
Of the total 142 issues traded on the CSE floor, 132 posted gains, eight dropped and two remained unchanged.
Turnover at the CSE went up to Tk 51.90 crore from the Wednesday�s Tk 45.70 crore.

DSE gen INDEX[28-12-08]

APEXWEAV

In response to a DSE query regarding acquisition of 39,99,998 ordinary shares of Sattar Textile Mills Limited (STML), the company has further informed the following information: 1. Face Value of each share of STML is Tk. 100.00, 2. Total paid up Capital of STML is Tk. 40 crore, 3. Price for Acquisition (per share): Transferor (STML) TK. 99.43, Transferee (AWFML) Tk. 182.65 and 4. Net profit of STML was Tk. 10.71 million for the year ended on 30.06.08.

DSE NEWS

Mutual Trust Bank Ltd. (DSE Member # 197) has got Dealer Registration Certificate No. REG.-3.1/DSE-197/2008/220 dated May 29, 2008 vide SEC letter No. SEC/REG/DSE/2008/278 dated June 01, 2008. The six digits ID of Mutual Trust Bank Ltd. (DSE Member # 197) is DLRMTB.