Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - Bangladesh’s stocks finished marginally lower last week that ended on Thursday, after remaining positive in the past three weeks, as cautious investors’ bagged profit on heavyweight bank stocks.
Brokers said correction was triggered by slow participation and pursuance of January-March quarter-end profit booking by the institutional investors that made some selling spree on market.
The week featured four trading sessions as March 26 was public holiday due to the Independence Day of Bangladesh.
Of them, three sessions closed lower, while one saw marginal gain.
The benchmark of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) went down by 6.62 points or 0.12 per cent to finish the week at 5,719.61 points.
However, the two other indices managed to close green. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 14.09 points or 0.68 per cent to settle at 2,091 points.
The DSE Shariah Index rose 2.24 points or 0.17 per cent to close at 1,304 points.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also finished marginally lower with its Selective Categories Index, CSCX, falling 4.0 points or 0.04 per cent to close at 10,754 points.
The total turnover for the week came down to BDT 37.25 billion, which was nearly 35 per cent lower than the previous week’s BDT 56.93 billion as last week saw four trading sessions instead of previous week’s five.
Accordingly, the daily turnover averaged at BDT 9.31 billion, which was more than 18 per cent lower than the previous week’s average of BDT 11.39 billion.
“The bearish sentiment also reflected on trading activities as turnover fell significantly,” said the City Bank Capital Resources.
“The market finished the week almost flat note as the shaky investors adopted ‘wait-and-see’ approach on the ongoing slow market movement,” said International Leasing Securities, a stockbroker, in an analysis.
The stockbroker noted that the market observed see-saw movements almost throughout the week as the investors were active from both sides of the trading fence.
“Several issues from telecom, financial institution and engineering sectors enjoyed buoyancy while selling of shares was observed mostly from IT, miscellaneous, textile sector and bank,” said the stockbroker.
Out of 332 issues traded, 84 closed higher, 225 closed lower and 23 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
City Bank dominated the DSE turnover chart for the second week in a row with 47.44 million shares of BDT 1.93 billion changing hands, followed by LankaBangla Finance, AB Bank, Beximco and Beximco Pharmaceuticals.
Delta Brac Housing Finance and Investment was the week’s highest gainer, posting a 12.67 per cent gain, while Fareast Finance was the worst loser, slumping by 12.18 per cent.
BBN/SK/AD