Increasing participation of local and foreign investors pushed up the daily average turnover on the Dhaka Stock Exchange to Tk 117.98 crore from the previous week’s Tk 82.23 crore. Turnover rose due to the bigger participation of local institutional and foreign investors. The country’s stock market returned to an upward trend from the closing end of April after witnessing downtrend for months. Total turnover on DSE in the last week increased by 43.48 per cent to Tk 589.91 crore from the previous week’s Tk 411.14 crore.

The participation of the institutional investors increased on expectation of bigger foreign portfolio investment. The international investors meet raised the expectation of the bigger participation of the foreign investors in the country’s stock market at a new level. The DSE general index gained 79.79 points or 4.44 per cent in the last week to close at 1877.90 on May 17, while the blue chips index, DSE20, advanced by 81.26 points or 5.59 per cent to finish at 1535.90. Amid the rally market capitalisation at the DSE increased by Tk 1,361 crore in the last week to stand its all-time high at Tk 42,307 crore on May 17.

Earlier on May 3, the market indicator crossed Tk 40,000 crore marks for the first time in the history of country’s stock market. Most of the securities finished up in the last week. Of the total 237 issues traded on the DSE, 150 advanced, 65 declined and 22 remained unchanged. Thirty five issues recorded no transaction during the period. Excelsior Shoes topped the gainers’ list getting 56.25 per cent rise in its share price while Bangladesh Shipping Corporation was the worst loser witnessing 21.91 per cent fall. The Power Grid Company Bangladesh topped the turnover leaders with total sales of Tk 81.93 crore which was 13.89 per cent of the total turnover at the bourse in last week.

Other turnover leaders in the week were BRAC Bank, Southeast Bank, Prime Bank, Square Pharmaceuticals, Dhaka Electric Supply Company, Summit Power, UCBL, Exim Bank and Heidelberg Cement.