Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)-Bangladesh’s stocks witnessed another sluggish week that ended on Thursday as ongoing sluggish sentiment intensified amid lack of strong positive momentum in the market.
The week featured five trading sessions as usual.
Of them, first four sessions closed lower while last one saw marginal gain.
The benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) went down by 94.73 points or 2.07 per cent to settle at 4,472.84 points.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 34.52 points or 1.97 per cent to finish at 1,718.69 points.
The DSE Shariah Index dropped 28.86 points or 2.59 per cent to close at 1,086.37 points.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also closed lower with its Selective Categories Index, CSCX, plunging by 196.96 points or 2.30 per cent to settle at 8,369.37 points.
The total turnover for the week stood at BDT 22.43 billion on the DSE against BDT 19.85 billion in the week before as last week saw five trading sessions instead of previous week’s four.
The daily turnover averaged BDT 4.49 billion, which was 9.58 per cent lower than the previous week’s average of BDT 4.96 billion.
LankaBangla Securities, a stockbroker, said, “The market continued downward trends of the previous week and kept declining for first four trading sessions, though last session saw marginal gain”.
The stockbroker noted that the sell pressure was dominant during the period since three of the mutual funds completed liquidation of their portfolio.
IDLC Investments, a merchant bank, said, “The market passed an eventful week amid a couple of corporate declarations and the completion of winding up process of AIMS First Mutual Fund and Grameen Mutual Fund One”.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 327 issues traded, 231 closed lower, 72 higher and 24 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor during the week.
LankaBangla Finance dominated the week’s turnover chart for the second week with shares worth BDT 1.48 billion changing hands followed by Orion Pharma, Singer BD, United Power Generation & Distribution Company and IFAD Autos.
Orion Pharma was the week’s best performer, posting a rise of 16.01 per cent while Singer BD was the week’s worst loser, plunging by 21.12 per cent following its poor dividend declaration.
BBN/SK/AD