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Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s extended their losing streak for the 12 straight weeks that ended on Thursday as investors continued their selling binge to avoid further loss.
Market experts have indentified some reasons including presence of a strong placement market, dearth of quality stocks, lack of investors' confidence, shortage of liquidity for the erosion in stock prices.
The stock market has also been affected by the lower participation of institutional and foreign investors, they added.
Turnover on the major bourse slumped to 13-month low and prime index came down to five months low in second session of the week on Tuesday.
Following the free-fall, angry investors took to the streets and demanded resignation of M Khairul Hossain, chairman of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC).
The stock market stakeholders also held series of meetings with the securities' regulator last week to find out the way to stop the erosion in stock prices.
Meanwhile, the prime bourse has come up with a set of proposals to rein in sponsors, directors and placement shareholders from dumping their shares as it battles to stem the tide of negativity surrounding the bourse.
The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) submitted the proposals to the BSEC on Thursday.
The prime bourse also proposed for limiting private placement of shares, bringing in fundamentally sound stocks, and revision of the limit of banks' exposure to the capital market.
The week saw four trading days as the market remained closed on Sunday due to Pahela Baishakh. Of them, the market lost 77.48 points in first two sessions while last two recovered 72.50 points, which helped the prime index to mitigate sharp loss.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the DSE, went down by 4.98 points or 0.09 per cent to settle the week at 5,321.
DSEX eroded more than 629 points or 10.60 per cent in the past 12 consecutive weeks.
Two other indices also edged lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 5.40 points to finish at 1897 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 5.61 points to close at 1,227.
The total turnover stood at BDT 12.32 billion last week against BDT 16.73 billion in the week before as last week saw four trading days instead of previous week's five.
The daily turnover averaged BDT 3.08 billion, registering a decline of 7.93 per cent over the previous week's average of BDT 3.35 billion.
Block trade contributed 6.10 per cent to the week's total turnover, where stocks like Mutual Trust Bank, Grameenphone, The City Bank, BRAC Bank, Beximco Pharma and Prime Bank dominated the block trade board.
Among the major sectors, non-bank financial institutions witnessed the highest loss of 3.30 per cent, followed by food with 2.20 per cent, pharma 0.70 per cent and power 0.20 per cent.
The textile sector posted the highest gain of 1.10 per cent, followed by engineering with 0.90 per cent, banking 0.80 per cent and telecom 0.70 per cent.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also fell 0.62 per cent to BDT 3,951 billion on Thursday, from BDT 3,976 billion in the week before.
Gainers, however, outnumbered the losers, as out of 348 issues traded, 176 closed higher, 143 ended lower and 29 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
Fortune Shoes dominated the turnover chart, with 21.10 million shares worth BDT765 million changing hands. The company accounted for 6.20 per cent of the week's total turnover.
The other turnover leaders were Monno Ceramic (BDT 687 million), Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company (BDT 644 million), United Power (BDT 480 million) and Esquire Knit Composite (BDT 246 million).
Standard Ceramic was the week's best performer, posting a gain of 33.78 per cent while Reckitt Benckiser was the worst loser, losing 29.81 per cent after its dividend declaration.
On the other hand, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower, with its CSE All Share Price Index -- CASPI - shedding 43 points or 0.26 per cent to settle at 16,264 and the Selective Categories Index -- CSCX -losing 31 points or 0.31 per cent to finish at 9,843.
BBN/SSR/AD