Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Bangladesh’s stocks returned to the red last week that ended on Thursday with turnover falling further as profit booking dominated the market sentiment.
The week witnessed five trading sessions as usual. Of them, four sessions closed lower while one session saw marginal gain.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 55.58 points or 1.14 percent to settle the week at 4,808.87.

The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, plunged 27.44 points or 1.45 percent to end at 1,859.40. The DSE Shariah Index shed 6.08 points or 0.51 percent to finish at 1,191.01.

The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower with its Selective Categories Index – CSCX – fell 79.88 points or 0.88 percent to close the week at 9,000.08.

The total turnover on the main bourse dropped to BDT 30.99 billion against BDT 41.37 billion in the week before. The daily turnover for the week averaged BDT 6.20 billion, registering a decline of 25 percent over the previous week’s averaged BDT 8.27 billion.

“Investors remained cautious about price levels and some of them preferred booking a portion of the profit generated in recent rally,” said IDLC Investments, a merchant bank, in its weekly analysis.

“The capital market demonstrated a bearish momentum last week amid heavy profit booking sell-offs from the investors,” said International Leasing Securities, a stockbroker, in its weekly analysis.

The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 325 issues traded, 200 declined, 104 advanced and 21 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.

United Power Generation and Distribution Company was the week’s top turnover leader with shares worth above BDT 1.76 billion changing hands during the week followed by Islami Bank, Lafarge Surma Cement, FAR Chemicals and Shahjibazar Power.
Northern Jute Manufacturing Company was the week’s best performer, posting a rise of 27.27 percent while Shandhani Life Insurance was the week’s worst loser, plunging by 19.15 percent.

BBN/SSR/AD