BBN file photo
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s stocks extended the losses for the third straight week that ended on Thursday as investors were mostly on selling spree.
Analysts said the persistent liquidity crisis pushed banks’ deposit interest rate high and lured many investors to put money in banks instead of investing in capital market which was taking a toll on the market turnover.
They said ambiguity over the Dhaka bourse’s share sales to strategic partner and concerns over the ongoing liquidity crunch eroded investors’ confidence to a great extent.
Although three of the five trading days ended in positive, the losses of the two trading days ending in red far outweighed the gains.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 42.85 points or 0.73 percent to settle at 5,828 points.
“The market has been passing through a bearish trend with low turnover levels, which has persisted last week as well,” commented LankaBangla Securities, in its weekly analysis.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, also fell 25 points to finish at 2,144.
However, The DSES (Shariah) index saw a fractional gain of 0.56 points to settle at 1,373.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower with the CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI – losing 79 points to settle at 18,000 and Selective Categories Index - CSCX –falling 44 points to finish at 10,867.
Turnover, the crucial indicator of the market, stood at BDT 18.59 billion against BDT 18.68 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover averaged BDT 3.72 billion, which was 0.45 percent lower than the previous week’s average of BDT 3.73 billion.
According to International Leasing Securities, the stock market continued its downbeat trend amid ongoing liquidity crisis and ambiguity over the DSE’s share sales to a strategic partner.
The small investors remained cautious about fresh exposure to the market, while institutional investors mostly followed “go slow” approach in ongoing year-end dividend declaration of the December ending companies, said the stockbroker.
The gainers took a modest lead over the losers as out of 339 issues traded, 154 closed higher, 149 lower and 36 remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
Monno Ceramic Industries topped the week’s turnover chart with 3.76 million shares worth nearly BDT 564 million changing hands, followed by National Tubes, The IBN Sina, IFAD Autos and Nahee Aluminum.
Oimex Electrode was the week’s best performer, posting a gain of 12.03 percent while NCC Bank Mutual Fund-1 was the week’s worst loser, losing 12.90 percent.
BBN/SSR/SR