Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh's stocks ended lower last week that ended on Thursday, the first week of the holy Month of Ramadan, as investors remained cautious ahead of June closing.
The week featured five trading sessions as usual and all five sessions posted marginal loss with lacklustre participation by investors.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), dipped below the 4,500-mark and ended at 4,455.28 points, shedding 64.57 points or 1.43 percent.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 26.96 points or 1.55 percent to settle at 1,715.66 points. DSE Shariah Index shed 9.34 points or 0.85 percent to finish at 1092.32 points.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX – lost 108.79 points or 1.28 percent to end the week at 8,349.83 points.
The total turnover for the week stood at BDT 18.42 billion against BDT 19.36 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover for the week averaged BDT 3.68 billion, registering a decline of 4.83 percent over the previous week’s averaged BDT 3.87 billion.
“The stock market exhibited marginally downbeat momentum last week as the market participants remained skeptic due to the volatile market trend in recent period,” said International Lasing Securities, a stock broker, in an analysis.
IDLC Investments, a merchant bank, said, “The market passed the week within the holy month of Ramadan with shortened trading hours, and resultantly lower activities”.
The losers took a lead over the gainers as out of 324 issues traded, 184 declined, 112 advanced and 28 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Lafarge Surma Cement was the week’s top turnover leader with shares worth BDT 775.58 million changing hands during the week followed by Beximco Pharma, Square Pharma, Beximco and KPCL.
BBN/BB/SSR