BBN file photo

Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– Bangladesh’s stocks continued to plummet with key index of the prime bourse tumbling a fresh 33-month low last week, as the government recent measures failed to boost investors’ confidence.

Week on week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 77.90 points or 1.58 per cent to close at 4,855.

The DSEX has lost a cumulative 381 points in the past four consecutive weeks and the market-cap lost BDT 195 billion during the period under review.

The outgoing week saw five trading days as usual. Of them, first two sessions saw marginal gain while last three ended lower.

Depressed market outlook, withdrawal of foreign fund and no quick solution following the finance minister’s meeting with the stakeholders have further dented the investor confidence, market operators said.

The government’s recent market-supportive measures, including the central bank’s declaration to ease advance-deposit ratio (ADR) and the finance minister’s assurance, apparently failed to bring the investors back to the market, they added.

However, the government move to end a row with Grameenphone perked up the telecom sector, which booked the highest gain of 9.79 per cent, as Grameenphone share price jumped 10.29 per cent.

The outgoing week saw five trading days as usual. Of them, first two sessions saw marginal gain while the three others ended lower.

Two other indices also closed lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, shed 1.13 points to finish at 1,735 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 33.58 points to close at 1,123.

The weekly total turnover on the prime bourse stood at BDT 18.98 billion, up from BDT 16.86 billion in the week before as last week saw five trading days instead of previous week’s four.

The market capitalisation of the DSE also fell 0.12 per cent to BDT 3,689 billion on Thursday, from BDT 3,694 billion in the previous week.

The daily turnover averaged out at BDT 3.79 billion, down 10 per cent from the previous week’s average of BDT 4.21 billion.

Most of the major sectors showed negative performances, with pharma sector losing the highest of 4.48 per cent, followed by engineering (4.15 per cent), power (0.94 per cent), non-bank financial institutions (0.86 per cent) and banking (0.25 per cent).

On the other hand, telecom sector posted the highest gain of 9.79 per cent followed by food with (0.37 per cent).
Losers outnumbered the gainers, as out of 355 issues traded, 239 closed lower and 83 higher while 33 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor in the outgoing week.

National Tubes dominated the week’s turnover chart, with shares worth BDT 1.21 billion changing hands during the week.

Provati Insurance was also the week’s best performer, posting a gain of 32 per cent while the Monno Ceramic was the worst loser, shedding 30.74 per cent.

On the other hand, the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower, with its CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI – losing 222 points to settle at 14,760 and the Selective Categories Index – CSCX – shedding 135 points to finish the week at 8,960.

BBN/SSR/AD