Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s stocks went down for the third straight weeks with turnover remained sluggish as investors remained cautious amid fear of volatility in the political arena.
The week featured four trading sessions like previous week instead of five as market was closed Thursday on the occasion of Christmas Day. Of them, three sessions down while one session saw marginal gain.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) went down by 32.85 points or 0.68 percent to close the week 19-session low at 4,823.57 points.
The DS30, comprising blue chips index lost 5.99 points or 0.33 percent to close at 1,786.88 points. The DSE Shariah Index shed 6.14 points or 0.54 percent to close at 1,138.69 points.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower with its Selective Categories Index-CSCX – lost 83.49 points or 0.91 percent to close the week at 9,019.29 points.
The total turnover came down to BDT 8.99 billion against BDT 9.55 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover for the week averaged BDT 2.24 billion, registering a decline of 5.85 percent over the previous week’s average of BDT 2.38 billion.
IDLC Investments in an analysis said, “Ahead of year-end market remained weak, while investors were meticulously re-assessing market before fresh investments”.
Uncertainty remained high in the political landscape as the main opposition declared some plans for demonstration in the new-year, said the merchant bank.
LankaBangla Securities said: “Institutional inactivity ahead of year-end might be the reason for this lacklustre participation,” said the stock broker.
“The stock market endured a bearish week amidst the profit booking attitude and lack of confidence among the investors,” said International Leasing Securities.
Losers outpaced gainers as out of 314 issues traded, 198 declined, 89 advanced and 27 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Lafarge Surma Cement dominated the week’s top turnover chart with shares worth Tk 382.66 million changing hands followed by Square Pharma, Beximco Pharma, GP and Agni Systems.
Exim Bank First Mutual Fund was the week’s top gainer, posting a rise of 11.86 percent while Jute Spinners was the week’s worst loser, plunging by 14.45 percent.
BBN/SSR/AD-27Dec14-5:14 pm (BST)