The stocks gained significantly this week as the DSE All Share Price Index moved up by over 6 percent or 75 points to close at 1242 yesterday, continuing previous week's upward trend when the index gained about 5 percent or 52 points.

DSE general index gained 6 percent or 88 points this week to close at 1569 points while the index registered a gain of 5 percent or 68 points in the previous week.

“With the easing of the call money market, institutional investors came up to push the market up. Individual investors followed the institutional investors,” DSE chief executive officer Dr Salauddin Ahmed Khan told the news agency.

He said a good number of commercial banks are now investing in the stock to lead the market since last month.

The DSE registered total turnover of Tk 270 crore during the 5-day trading during the week as compared to Tk 204 crore in the previous week. Daily average turnover increased to Tk 54 crore from Tk 40 crore in the previous week.

The DSE CEO also mentioned the contribution of some good corporate announcements in terms of dividends that attracted the investors to the market.

He said the market experienced a bearish trend to fall at the bottom as the institutional investors started withdrawing their investments from the stock market since late last year as the money market faced liquidity crisis.

“The prices of stocks still remained much less than the expected level of the year 2004,” Dr Salauddin said, adding that the index should have been set at a higher level considering the new issues, bonus and rights shares issued in the meantime.

Total market value in terms of face value increased by one-third since then, he estimated.

Replying to a question, the DSE CEO said many were trying to take an advantageous position on speculation that they would yield benefit during the tenure of caretaker government.