Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The country’s stock markets edged marginally lower last week that ended on Thursday with significant improvement in turnover as the market lacked any clear direction, market operators said.
Week-on-week, the prime index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) --- DSEX --- went down marginally by 11.31 points or 0.24 percent to close the week at 4,749.87 points.
However, the other two indices ended mildly positive. The DS30 index gained 5.89 points or 0.35 per cent to close at 1,693.91 points while the Shariah Index (DSES) advanced 7.13 points or 0.72 per cent to close the week at 1,002.41 points as investors’ interest was mainly alive in DS30 and DSES.
The port city bourse --- the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) edged down with its Selective Categories Index – CSCX lost 54.66 points or 0.58 per cent to close the week at 9,287.03 points.
The week featured all five trading sessions and the market lost three trading sessions while two sessions closed positive.
The total market turnover for the week stood at BDT 25.35 billion on DSE which was BDT 18.65 billion in the previous week.
Consequently, the average daily turnover improved to BDT 5.07 billion, registering 36 percent increase over the previous week’s average of BDT 3.73 billion.
The losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 297 issues traded during the week, 192 declined, 92 advanced and 13 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
Among the major sectors, food & allied posted a staggering gain of 8.86 percent owing to the steep price appreciation of BATBC and Olympic which gained 12.08 percent and 8.24 percent respectively.
Pharmaceuticals and telecommunications gained 2.96 percent and 2.53 percent respectively while banks and fuel & power ended 2.76 percent and 1.54 percent lower in the week.
Eight listed companies – Sinobangla Industries, Trust Bank, BSRM Steels, Reliance Insurance, Glaxo SmithKline, IDLC Finance, Singer BD and BATBC made corporate declaration in this week.
The market capitalisation of the DSE went up slightly by 0.72 per cent as it was BDT 2,902.35 billion at the opening day of the week and it stood at BDT 2,923.12 billion in closing session of the week.
Olympic Industries dominated the week’s top turnover chart with shares worth BDT 1.27 billion changing hands during the week followed by BSC, Square Pharma, Singer BD and BSCCL.
AL-Haj Textile was the week’s top gainer, posting a rise of 41.94 per cent while Generation Next Fashion was the week’s worst loser, slumping by 20.45 percent, according to reports.
BBN/SSR/AD-01Mar14-10:14 am (BST)