Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– Bangladesh’s stocks plummeted for the second consecutive weeks that ended on Thursday with turnover remained sluggish as the investors are yet to fully adopt themselves to the new trading system.
The week featured four trading sessions instead of five as market remained closed on 16th December, on the occasion of Victory Day. Of them, the market advanced one session while three sessions closed red.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) came down below the 4,900-mark and ended at 4,856.42 points, shedding 76.61 points or 1.55 percent.
The two other indices also closed in the red. The DS30, comprising blue chips index lost 30.78 points or 1.69 percent to close at 1,792.86 points. The DSE Shariah Index shed 10.56 points or 0.91 percent to close at 1,144.83 points.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower with its Selective Categories Index-CSCX – lost 153.74 points or 1.66 percent to close the week at 9,102.78 points.
Turnover at DSE remained dry and total turnover accumulated to BDT 9.55 billion, which was 47.01 percent lower over the previous week’s turnover of BDT 18.02 billion. Last week saw four trading sessions instead of previous week’s five.
The daily turnover for the week averaged BDT 2.38 billion, registering a decline of 34 percent over the previous week’s average of BDT 3.60 billion.
“Perhaps the investors are yet to adopt the new trading system and they tried to adapt the new trading system which was introduced last on December 11,” said an analyst.
“Stocks suffered considerable setback due to the inception of new trading system as it endured a bearish week,” said International Leasing Securities in its weekly analysis.
“Encountering a number of sell-offs, market remained sluggish, with an exception in the last session of the week, when market re-assed and recouped last few sessions losses,” said IDLC Investments in its weekly analysis.
Adapting to new trading platform remained the key challenge of the week for investors-traders community. Amid uncertainty, volatility ensued, with small-cap stocks taking over gainers board, said the merchant bank.
“Overall, investors remained reluctant to make moves in the market, given trading difficulties and absence of any trend formation,” said the merchant bank.
Losers outpaced gainers as out of 314 issues traded, 183 declined, 113 advanced and 18 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Agni Systems Ltd dominated the week’s top turnover chart with shares worth Tk 393.94 million changing hands followed by Fu-Wang Foods, Western Marine, Square Pharma and Summit Alliance Port.
Fu-Wang Foods was also the week’s top gainer, posting a rise of 14.58 per cent while Aziz Pipes was the week’s worst loser, plunging by 21.93 per cent.
BBN/SSR/AD-21Dec14-11:30 am (BST)
