Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Country’s stocks went down for second straight week and prime index came down below 4,100- point mark once again as investors stayed 'watchful' over on-going political developments.
Week-on-week, the Dhaka Stock Exchange prime index --- DSEX, went down by 40.55 points or 0.98% to close 4,077.95 points. The blue chip index DS30 marked steeper loss as it shed 36.06 points or 2.33% to close the week at 1,509.43 points.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower with its Selective Category Index lost 94.54 points or 1.17 per cent to close at 7,932.98 points.
"Stocks declined as the investors adopted a 'wait-and-see' strategy amid meticulous trading policy throughout the week," experts said.
The week saw five trading sessions. Among them, market lost first two sessions while last three saw no significant movement in the broad index as market ended flat in green.
Like the previous week, market saw sluggish trading activities this as well. The total turnover value in the week amounted to BDT 23.96 billion, compared to BDT 24.20 billion in the previous week.
The average daily turnover stood at BDT 4.79 billion, registering 0.95% decrease over the previous week's average of BDT 4.84 billion.
"With the repetition of opening hype and eventually slowing down amid on-going political developments fostered market sentiment to remain volatile over the week," IDLC Investments said, in its weekly market analysis.
"Investment outlook stayed bleak over rising potential political warm-up as fear grew strong among investment community, keeping market participation indolent," said the merchant bank.
Factually, investors were pursuing their 'watchful' tendency over future directions of capital market and political frontier, the merchant bank said.
Profit-taking in large-cap scrips against positioning in micro-cap and mini- cap scrips created a countercyclical effect almost throughout the week, it said.
"This week mostly got sentimental push from the meeting of political parties with foreign diplomats and securities regulator's steps against market abnormality," the merchant bank added.
"The market is hovering within a band of 90 points for the last ten trading days, indicating a strong consolidation before taking a definite direction," stated LankaBangla Securities.
The gainers took a marginal lead over the losers as out of 296 issues traded during the week on DSE, 151 advanced, 132 declined and 13 remained unchanged.
During the week, investors participated most in textile, pharmaceutical and fuel & power sectors, accounting for 16.45%, 13.10 %, and 10.50% of total turnover on DSE.
All the major sectors ended in red except pharmaceuticals and chemicals which advanced 2.23% as two of its issue --- Libra Infusion and JMI Syringes & Medical Devices gained sharply by 46.01% 40.48% respectively during the week.
Telecommunications lost the highest - 7.56%, resulting from sharp decline of Grameenphone and Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company, which declined 7.4% and 8.9% respectively followed by NBFI 4.52%, banks 2.66% and fuel and power 1.42%.
The other top gaining sectors of the week are tannery, textile, food and allied and cement, going up by 8.77%, 4.33%, 3.92% and 3.47% respectively.
The market capitalization of the DSE went down by 1.07% as it was BDT 2,630.83 billion at the opening day and at the end week it stood at BDT 2,602.63 billion.
BBN/SSR/AD-14Sept13-11:04 am (BST)
