Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Bangladesh stocks declined sharply in the last week with sluggish trading activities as investors showed lack of confidence in local companies by selling off massive positions throughout the week, market operators said.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the benchmark index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), came down below 4,600-point mark and ended the week at 4,566.86 points, losing 135.59 points or 2.88 percent.
The other two indices also suffered heavily. The DS30, comprising blue chips, lost 48.27 points or 2.81 percent to close at 1,671.93 points. The DSE Shariah Index went down by 22.04 points or 2.12 percent to close at 1,018.20 points.
The week featured four trading sessions as Thursday was public holiday on the occasion of May Day. The market closed lower in all four trading sessions.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also went down sharply and its Selective Categories Index, CSCX, lost 313.51 points or 3.45 percent to close the week at 8,771.04 points.
The total turnover value on the DSE came down to BDT 16.93 billion which was BDT 24.72 billion in the previous week as last week saw one less trading session instead of previous week’s five.
The average daily turnover for the week stood at BDT 4.23 billion, registering a decline of 14.38 percent over the previous week’s average of BDT 4.94 billion.
First session of the week faced steep decline, dragging DSEX below 4,700 points as the investors observed apparent lack of market direction. Having a vacuum in demand side, depressed earnings kept investors in a watchful mood.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 301 issues traded during the week, 248 declined, 45 advanced and 8 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor, the DSE data showed.
Among the major sectors, top gaining sectors of the week were miscellaneous 4.87 percent, tannery 2.48 percent, and cement 1.27 percent respectively. Conversely, top losing sectors were IT sector 13.07 percent, ceramic 8.26 percent and textile 7.02 percent respectively.
Fuel & power and pharmaceuticals remained in the centre of investors’ attention last week, capturing 15 per cent and 13 per cent of total turnover, respectively.
The market capitalisation of the DSE went down by 1.64 percent as it was BDT 3,002.35 billion on the opening day of the week and it stood at BDT 2,953.07 billion at closing session of the week.
Meghna Petroleum dominated the week’s top turnover chart with shares worth BDT 901.35 million changing hands during the week followed by GP, Lafarge Surma Cement, Renata and Heidelberg Cement.
ACI Limited was the week’s top gainer, posting a rise of 15.41 per cent following its corporate declaration of 85 per cent cash and 20 percent stock dividend while Delta Spinners was the week’s worst loser, slumping by 41.51 percent following its price adjustment after record date in the week.
“The market tumbled heavily last week as the investors showed lack of confidence in local companies by selling off massive positions and becoming bullish in multinational corporations,” commented LankaBangla Securities in its weekly market analysis.
“The bearishness in the local companies was on the backdrop of textile companies’ bad performance in January to March quarter and seven companies’ declaration of earnings recommending no dividend, which is a record in recent times,” the stock broker explained.
BBN/SSR/AD-03May14-1:55 pm (BST)
