Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Bangladesh’s stocks finished marginally lower for the two consecutive weeks that ended on Thursday as investors booked profit on large-cap stocks.
Analysts said the market edged lower as most of the investors booked profit on major sectors that saw significant gain in the past few weeks.
LankaBangla Securities, a stockbroker, said, “DSEX finished in the red after struggling to below 4,700-level as stocks continued its mild profit booking”.
The stockbroker noted all eyes are on the earnings declarations as investors remained vigilant about earnings performance on stocks which capped the upside of the index around 4,680-4,700 level.
The week witnessed five trading sessions as usual. Of them, two sessions saw marginal gain while three closed lower.
Weak-on-week, the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) went down by 8.88 points or 0.19 percent to close at 4,692.44 points.
The two other indices also ended in the red. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, saw sharp fall with 19.33 points or 1.09 percent to settle at 1,748.23 points.
The DSE Shariah Index lost 11.83 points or 1.05 percent to close at 1,111.76 points.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also finished marginally lower with its Selective Categories Index, CSCX, losing 23.92 points or 0.27 percent to close at 8,763.39 points.
The total turnover for the week stood at BDT 25.73 billion, which was 81.74 percent higher than the previous week’s BDT 14.15 billion as the last week saw five trading sessions instead of previous week’s three.
The daily turnover averaged BDT 5.15 billion, registering an increase of 9.05 percent over the previous week’s average of BDT 4.72 billion.
“The market faced marginal correction as the risk-averse investors booked profit on stocks that saw significant gain in the past few weeks,” said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.
He noted that the list of turnover leaders continued to be dominated by large- cap stocks. On the other hand, the lists of top gainers and top losers were largely comprised of small cap stocks.
Of the market cap leaders, GP enjoyed a good week powered by a good earnings announcement while Lafarge Surma Cement, ICB and United Power saw notable price decrease, he added.
The large-cap sectors showed mixed performances. Among the large-cap sectors, banks posted the highest gain of 2.45 percent followed by telecommunication 2.32 percent.
Engineering witnessed the highest fall of 3.51 percent, followed by fuel and power 2.37 percent, pharmaceuticals 1.19 percent and food and allied 0.41 percent.
The losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 329 issues traded, 170 closed lower, 145 higher and 14 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor last the week.
National Bank dominated the week’s turnover chart with shares worth BDT 1.02 billion changing hands, followed by Doreen Power, Titas Gas, Bangladesh Steel Re-rolling Mills and newly listed Fortune Shoes.
Standard Bank was the week’s best performer, posting a 22.22 percent rise, while Far East Chemical Industries was the worst loser, slumping by 20.99 percent.
A new issue – Fortune Shoes made debut on Thursday. The company’s share price jumped 501 percent from its issue price of BDT 10 each to close at BDT 60.10 on Thursday.
BBN/AD/SR