Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– Bangladesh’s stocks went down with the turnover hitting on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) a seven-week low last week, as looming political uncertainty and the unrest in the apparel sector put a dumper on the market.
Unrest in readymade garment (RMG) sector, fear of political turmoil, suspension of trading of a few stocks and lack of future market directions prompted the investors to book quick profit, market players said.
The week witnessed five trading sessions as usual and lost three sessions, while two sessions saw marginal gain.
Week-on-week, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange — DSEX went down by 84.33 points or 2.06 percent to close the week at 4,013.38. The DS30 Index, comprising blue chips, also lost 48.12 points or 3.18 percent to close at 1,464.31.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower with its Selective Category Index losing 144.7 points or 1.81 percent to close at 7,838.42.
The trading activities at the DSE remained sluggish as the total turnover value for the week stood at BDT 20.32 billion compared to previous week's total turnover value of BDT 28.81 billion.
The daily average turnover value came down to BDT 4.06 billion, registering a 29.47 percent decline over the previous week's average of BDT 5.76 billion, the DSE data showed.
"Political uncertainty, unrest in RMG sector and investors' mentality mostly contributed to generating quick return ahead of Eid-ul-Azha in this week's market sentiment," commented IDLC Investments in its weekly market analysis.
In the meantime, investors' pursuance of meticulous polity over dimmed capital market scenario put market situation in an indecisive mood, said the merchant bank.
Additionally, the investor's sector-wise as well as scrip-wise focus intended market scenario to remain volatile throughout the week, the merchant bank added.
The losers took a marginal lead over the gainers as out of 298 issues traded during the week, 170 declined, 115 advanced and 13 remained unchanged on the DSE.
All the major sectors ended in red in the week. Non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) were the biggest loser as it went down by 6.21 percent. It was followed by telecommunications 3.88 percent, fuel and power 3.56 percent and pharmaceuticals 3.21 percent respectively. All three posted hefty losses during the week.
Banks remained dormant with no significant movement in the week with 0.63 percent loss.
The market capitalisation of the DSE went down by 1.87 percent, as it was BDT 2,606.12 billion at the opening day and at the end week it stood at BDT 2,557.31 billion.
BBN/SSR/AD-28Sept13-9:20 pm (BST)
