BBN file photo
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s stocks faced loss for the eight straight weeks that ended on Thursday with lower participation, market operators said.
Investors’ low confidence to the market amid ongoing pessimism, liquidity shortage coupled with lack of market triggers kept them mostly inactive, they added.
They said the institutional investors remained cautious while small investors were not confident enough to inject fresh fund into stocks, taking the prime index below 5,600-mark after three months.
The week saw four trading sessions instead of five as the market closed Sunday on the occasion of birthday of Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Of them, the market suffered losses three sessions while one saw marginal gain.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 86 points or 1.50 per cent to settle the week at 5,570.
DSEX eroded more than 380 points or 6.40 per cent in the past eight consecutive weeks.
Instability in the banking sector, rising non-performing loans, liquidity shortage coupled with soaring interest rates are weighing on investors’ mood, EBL Securities said.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 31 points to finish at 1993 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 8.0 points to close at 1,284.
The total turnover stood at BDT 17.20 billion last week against BDT 28.84 billion in the week before as last week saw four trading sessions instead of previous week’s five.
The daily turnover averaged BDT 4.30 billion, registering a decline of 25.45 per cent over the previous week’s average of BDT 5.76 billion.
Block trade contributed 3.10 per cent to the week’s total turnover, where stocks like Shajalal Islami Bank, Summit Power, Grameenphone, and BATBC dominated the block trade board.
The market capitalization of the DSE also fell 1.10 per cent to BDT 4,149 billion on Thursday, from BDT 4,197 billion in the week ago.
Among the major sectors, banking sector suffered most, losing 3.11 per cent, followed by financial institutions with 2.43 per cent, food 2.12 per cent, power 1.92 per cent and engineering 1.03 per cent.
Only telecommunication and pharmaceuticals ended higher, gaining 2.26 per cent and 0.35 per cent respectively.
Losers outnumbered the gainers, as out of 350 issues traded, 223 closed lower, 105 ended higher and 22 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
On the other hand, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also ended lower, with its CSE All Share Price Index -- CASPI – losing 184 points or 1.10 per cent to settle at 17,167 and the Selective Categories Index -- CSCX –shedding 108 points or 1.0 per cent to finish at 10,407.
BBN/SSR/AD