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Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– Bangladesh’s stocks extended their losing streak for the second straight week that ended on Thursday as investors sold financial shares, market operators said.

Most of the investors adopted a ‘cautious’ stance after the monetary policy statement (MPS) while some started to rebalance their portfolio after analysing the companies’ quarterly performance, they added.

Among the major sectors, banking, non-bank financial institutions, insurance sectors suffered most while power, pharma, food and telecom sectors witnessed gain.

The week saw five trading days as usual. Of them, the market ended lower three days while two sessions closed higher.

Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 9.09 points or 0.16 per cent to settle the week at 5,812.

Two other indices, however, ended higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, rose 18.13 points to finish at 2,026 and the DSE Shariah Index advanced 12.80 points to close at 1,323.

The total turnover stood at BDT 41.19 billion last week against BDT 51.71 billion in the week before.

The daily turnover averaged BDT 8.23 billion, registering a decline of 20.33 per cent over the previous week’s average of BDT 10.34 billion.

Block trade contributed 1.50 per cent to the total weekly turnover, where stocks like Square Pharmaceuticals, Grameenphone, Glaxo SmithKline, BRAC Bank and Navana CNG dominated the block trade board.

The market capitalisation of the DSE, however, rose 1.14 per cent to BDT 4,211 billion, from BDT 4,163 billion in the week before.

General insurance sector posted the highest loss of 7.42 per cent, snapping the recent gain, followed by life insurance lost 4.79 per cent, non-bank financial insurance 2.04 per cent and banking 2.04 per cent.

On the other hand, power sector posted the highest gain of 3.06 per cent, followed by pharma with 2.73 per cent, food 2.14 per cent and telecom 2.12 per cent.

Losers outpaced gainers, as out of 349 issues traded, 208 closed lower, 124 ended higher and 17 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor.

United Power dominated the turnover chart, with 7.88 million shares worth BDT 3.16 billion changing hands. The power generation company accounted for 7.67 per cent of the week’s total turnover.

The other turnover leaders were Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company (BDT 1.83 billion), Khulna Power (BDT 956 million), Grammeenphone (BDT 752 million), and Premier Bank (BDT 751 million).

Multinational companies (MNCs) performed well last week as four out of top ten gainers were from multinational companies.

Berger Paints was the best performer, gaining 25.34 per cent, while Prime Insurance Company was the worst loser, losing 22.05 per cent.

The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also ended lower, with its CSE All Share Price Index — CASPI – losing 109 points or 0.61 per cent to settle at 17781 and the Selective Categories Index — CSCX –shedding 59 points or 0.54 per cent to finish at 10,758.

BBN/SSR/AD