Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– The country’s stock market extended losing streak for the third straight week with lower market participation as ongoing volatility and apparent lack of directions kept investors indecisive.
The week featured all five trading sessions. Among them, the market lost four trading sessions while only one session saw positive amid volatile trading throughout the week.
Week-on-week, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSEX) went down by 64.29 points or 1.37 per cent, closing 7-week low value of 4,635.33 points.
The DS30, comprising blue chips also lost 20.45 points or 1.21 per cent to close at 1,669.68 points. However, the Shariah Index (DSES) closed positive with gaining 2.75 points or 0.27 per cent to close at 1,014.10 points.
The port city bourse — the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also went down last week with its Selective Categories Index – CSCX lost 172.32 points or 1.87 per cent to close the week at 9,035.43 points.
The total market turnover for the week stood at BDT 20.52 billion on DSE which was BDT 23.10 billion in the previous week. Consequently, the average daily turnover came down to BDT 4.10 billion, registering 11.15 per cent decline over the previous week's average of BDT 4.62 billion.
"Lack of direction of the market made investors behave passively towards the market. This week, market experienced four red days and only one green day with mild return," commented LankaBangla Securities, in its weekly market analysis.
"Investors remained sluggish about major sectors like banks and NBFIs as price is not reflecting fundamentals properly," said the stock broker.
Among the major sectors, top gaining sectors of the week were cement 4.87 per cent, mainly due to upward movement of Lafarge Surma Cement followed by engineering 0.81 per cent, food & allied 0.47 per cent and pharmaceuticals 0.08 per cent.
Banking sector suffered most – lost 4.27 per cent followed by NBFI 2.51 per cent and mutual fund 1.09 per cent. Telecommunications and fuel & power also lost 0.39 per cent and 0.25 per cent respectively.
A total of seven listed companies – Aramit Cement, Safko Spinning, Mutual Trust Bank, Unique Hotel & Resorts, GBB Power, AB Bank and First Security Islami Bank made corporate declaration in this week.
The market capitalisation of the DSE went down slightly by 0.71 per cent as it was BDT 2,909.06 billion at the opening day of the week and it stood at BDT 2,888.33 billion in closing session of the week. The investors' attention was mostly focused on fuel & power and pharmaceutical sectors, accounted for 14.80 per cent and 12.19 per cent of week's total market turnover.
Square Pharma dominated the week's top turnover chart with shares worth BDT 1.10 billion changing hands during the week followed by Lafarge Surma Cement, Padma Oil, Meghna Petroleum, and BSC.
Renwick Jajneswar was the week's top gainer, posting a rise of 18.77 per cent while IDLC Finance was the week's worst loser, slumping by 23.79 per cent following its price adjustment after record date.
BBN/SSR/AD-16Mar14-10:20 am (BST)
