Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)-Bangladesh’s stock market passed yet another lackluster week as investors worried over prolonged political turmoil that cast negative impact on selling spree, despite some better-than-expected positive earnings results.
The week featured five trading sessions as usual.
Of these, two sessions saw sharp decline while three managed to close at marginal gains.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 25.01 points or 0.52 percent to close at 4,763.22 points.
The DS30, comprising blue chips index lost marginally by 5.45 points or 0.31 percent to close at 1,772.42 points.
However, the DSE Shariah Index managed to close positive zone with gaining 2.62 points or 0.23 percent to close at 1,130.92 points.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also ended marginally lower for the second straight week with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX - lost 44.06 points or 0.49 percent to close the week at 8,854.42 points.
The total turnover improved slightly, but remained low.
The turnover for the week stood at BDT 15.08 billion against BDT 13.19 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover for the week averaged BDT 3.01 billion, registering an increase of 14.29 percent over the previous week’s average of BDT 2.63 billion.
IDLC Investments said: “Amid a number of corporate earnings disclosures, the bourse remained stagnant coupled with fear on political front last week”.
Having no improvement, market suffered with investors’ indecision to comeback.
Participation improved slightly with investors’ preference of selling mania while positioning stocks with positive earnings growth, said the merchant bank.
LankaBangla Securities said: “Market consolidated during the week amid prevailing political uncertainty while multinational companies performed well backed by good corporate declaration”.
“Intra-week volatility was high during the week as investors remained cautious throughout the week amid political uncertainty hovering in the country”.
Multinational companies performed well during the week as some of the MNCs reported outstanding earnings growth with good annual dividend, said the stock broker.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 319 issues traded, 218 declined, 87 advanced and 14 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Square Pharma dominated the week’s top turnover chart with shares worth BDT 684.66 million changing hands followed by MJL BD, ACI, Lafarge Surma Cement and Shahjibazar Power Company.
Shahjibazar Power was also the week’s top gainer, posting a rise of 29.16 percent while International Leasing & Financial Services was the week’s worst loser, plunging by 11.80 percent.
BBN/BB/AS-26Feb15-10:30pm (BST)