BBN file photo
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s stocks edged lower last week, after remaining flat in the previous week, as investors were mostly followed cautious stance ahead of national election.
Analysts said most of investors adopted a ‘wait-and-see’ policy ahead of national election while lower than expected earnings disclosures by a number of companies’ prompted some investors to sell shares.
The week featured five trading sessions as usual. Of them, three sessions closed lower while two managed to edge higher.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 14.49 points or 0.28 percent to settle the week at 5,244.
Two other indices—the DS30 index and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES)–also edged lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 2.98 points to finish at 1,856 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 2.35 points to close at 1,208.
“The market optimism faded away as the cautious investors were closely observing the political situation ahead of national election,” commented International Leasing Securities, in its weekly market analysis.
Some investors reshuffled their portfolios on ongoing earnings declarations that failed to meet the investors’ expectation, said the stockbroker.
Selling of shares from large-cap stocks particularly from telecom, engineering and financial institution sectors led the DSEX to close in red, it added.
Accordingly, telecommunication saw the highest loss of 2.40 percent, followed by financial institutions 1.73 percent, engineering 0.l7 percent.
Total turnover, however, increased to BDT 27.65 billion on the DSE which was BDT 25.95 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover averaged BDT 5.53 billion, registering an increase 6.51 percent over the previous week’s average of BDT 5.19 billion.
Of the 347 traded issues, 186 closed lower, 143 ended higher and 18 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor last week.
United Power topped the week’s turnover chart with 4.48 million shares worth BDT 1.37 billion changing hands during the week.
The other turnover leaders were Khulna Power Company, SK Trims Industries, IFAD Autos and Saiham Cotton Mills.
Sonali Aansh Industries was the week’s best performer, posting a gain of 38.63 percent with no price sensitive information.
Tosrifa Industries was the worst loser, losing 19.92 per cent.
The port city’s bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also ended marginally lower with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI –shedding 46 points to settle at 16,055.
The Selective Categories Index - CSCX – also lost 24 points to close the week at 9,729.
A new issue—Kattali Textile- made its share trading debut last week. The new comer’s share price jumped 144 percent to close at BDT 24.40 on the first trading day on Monday at DSE.
BBN/SSR/SR