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Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s stocks extended the losing streak for the two straight weeks that ended on Thursday as cautious investors continued their selling binge on large-cap stocks.
Analysts said stocks investors booked profit, particularly December year-ending stocks like bank, financial institutions and telecommunication, taking the market in the negative territory.
The week featured five trading days as usual. Of them, four sessions suffered losses while one posted marginal gain.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 73.63 points or 1.32 percent to settle at 5,500 points.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 38.65 points to close at 1,919 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 7.29 points to end at 1,271 points.
According to International Leasing Securities, the market fell as investors kept their selling spree on December ending stocks throughout the week.
The stockbroker noted that selling of shares mostly from banking, financial institution and telecom sectors contributed to the fall in indices.
Turnover, another indicator of the market, however, soared to BDT 45.06 billion which was BDT 30.54 billion in the week before as last week saw five trading sessions instead of previous week’s four.
The daily turnover averaged BDT 9.01 billion, registering an increase of 18 percent over the previous week’s average of BDT 7.63 billion.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 340 traded issues, 223 closed lower, 107 ended higher and 10 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
Active Fine Chemicals topped the week’s turnover chart with 81.30 million shares worth BDT 3.67 billion changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were Khulna Power Company, BBS Cables, IFAD Autos and United Power.
National Life Insurance was the week’s best performer, posting a gain of 48.40 percent. National Housing Finance was the worst loser, as its price plunged 16.73 percent last week.
The port city’s bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also ended lower with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI –losing 203 points to settle at 16,999.
The Selective Categories Index - CSCX – also plunged 123 points to close at 10,303 points.
BBN/SSR/SI