Retail investors are in despair as DSE witnesses volatility. BBN file photo
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s stocks extended the losing streak for the five consecutive weeks that ended on Thursday as investors continued their selling spree amid persistent liquidity crisis.
Analysts said the investors remained cautious as the persistent liquidity crisis coupled with uncertainty over the Dhaka bourse’s share sales to strategic partner continues.
Index closed flat on the first session of the week. The following three sessions saw continuous index fall with a combined 150 point loss. Finally, the last trading day saw a small 8 points gain.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 140 points or 2.45 percent to settle at 5,580.
Two other indices of the premier bourse also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 34 points to finish at 2,082 and DSES (Shariah) index shed 27 points to settle at 1,322.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower with CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI – shedding 416 points to settle at 17,239 points and Selective Categories Index - CSCX –falling 247 points to end at 10,414.
Turnover, the crucial indicator of the market, stood at BDT 17.69 billion which was BDT 13.80 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover averaged BDT 3.54 billion, which was more than 28 percent higher than the previous week’s average of BDT 2.76 billion.
According to LankaBangla Securities, although turnover saw some improvements, overall market turnover levels are still low compared to historical trend.
“When news broke that some favorable adjustments would be made to the banks’ capital market exposure regulations, markets rallied in the last two hours of the closing session of the week,” the stockbroker said.
For most of the week, financial stocks again took the largest hit during the index slide.
All the major market sectors gave negative returns with non-bank financial institutions and banking losing the most with 5.30 per cent and 3.23 per cent losses respectively.
International Leasing Securities, said, the investors opted to liquidate their holdings in financial institution, bank, textile, engineering, food, fuel & power, cement and pharmaceutical sectors throughout the week in anticipation of further fall.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 340 issues traded, 269 closed lower, 52 lower and 19 remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
The newly listed Queen South Textile dominated the turnover chart with 10.88 million shares worth nearly BDT 391 million changing hands, followed by Square Pharmaceuticals, Wata Chemicals, Monno Ceramic Industries and IFAD Autos.
Wata Chemicals was the week’s best performer, posting a gain of 16.67 percent while United Finance was the week’s worst loser, losing 12.75 percent.
BBN/SSR/SR