Business Desk :
Stocks extended their winning streak on Thursday as investors went on buying spree just ahead of unveiling the national budget.
DSEX, the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock (DSE), went up by 34.42 points or 0.57 per cent to settle at 6,053.
It is the highest level of DSEX in more than three years since February 4 2018, when DSEX was 6,102.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also hit a fresh all-time high at Tk 5,089 billion on Thursday, surpassing the previous day’s record high of Tk 5,052 billion.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal unveiled the national budget for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2021-2022 on Thursday.
The budget proposed to cut corporate tax for listed and non-listed companies by 2.5 percentage points to 22.5 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.
But the tax gap between listed and non-listed firms remained unchanged which analysts think would discourage non-listed firms to go public.
Market experts said the prime index stayed the above the ‘psychological’ threshold of 6,000-mark as investors put fresh funds on financial stocks amid budgetary expectations.
The institutional investors and high nets worth individual investors were putting fresh funds on stocks in high hope of budget incentives, said a merchant banker.
However, many investors were cautiously waiting and analyzing the proposed budget before making any further investment decisions, he said.
The investors showed confidence to the market and the bargain hunters injecting fresh funds in expectation of capital gains from the recent rally, commented EBL Securities.
The hyped-up insurance stock reached an exorbitant price level as investors rush to get a hold of the insurance issues, said the stockbroker.
The present stock market regulator took some market supportive measures in the past few months, which boosted the investors’ confidence in the market, said a top broker.
