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Stocks lure foreign fund managers

Officials of six global asset management firms visit Dhaka

Sarwar a Chowdhury
The stockmarket is becoming a potential investment destination for foreign fund managers; some of them are currently in the country to discover opportunities.
The fund managers sat with some fundamentally strong and large-cap companies, including Titas Gas, Grameenphone, Lafarge Surma Cement, ACI and Unique Hotel as part of a process to gather information.
They also met the officials of the Dhaka Stock Exchange and expressed their interest to invest in the secondary market of the premierbourse.
At the invitation of a local stockbroker — LankaBangla Securities — nine representatives from six internationally reputed asset management companies arrived in Dhaka on Sunday on a two-day visit.
They tried to evaluate the investment opportunities in listed
companies.
The fund managers are TIAA-CREF, William Blair, Everest, Columbia Management, Artemis, and Victory Capital Management -- all North America-based asset management firms.
“The invitation was as part of our programme to attract foreign investment to the stockmarket," said Wali UI Islam, chief executive officer of LankaBangla Securities.
To the foreign investors, Bangladesh has now become an important choice among the "Next-11 countries", he said.
As a result, foreign fund managers are actively considering the secondary market of the Bangladeshi stockmarket, Islamadded.
Although foreign investment, also called portfolio investment, accounts for less than 1 percent of the total market capitalisation, their investment movements carry a great deal of weight.
The lower value of securities, following the stockmarket crash
last year, tempted the foreign investors, most of whom tire global fund managers, to hoard stocks.
Foreign investments in the Dhaka bourse almost doubled to Tk 137 crore in July from the previous month.
The foreign investors went for fresh investments as most of the fundamentally strong stocks have become lucrative now, local stockbrokers said.
fri the first six months this year, the foreign investors' purchases amounted to Tk 770 crore, while their sales stood atonlyTk263 crore.
In 2011, the foreign investors bought shares worth Tk 1,216.83 crore, an increase of around 12 percent from 2010. Sales fell by 35 percent to around Tk 1,138.40 crore in 2011 from ayear ago.
The foreign investors sought the banking sector stocks the most, while power, pharmaceuticals, life insurance and multinational companies were also attractive.