Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Bangladesh’s stock market passed yet another bearish week that ended on Thursday, extending the losing streak for the third week straight as the investors remained watchful amid the deepening political strife.
Market retraced in all five trading sessions of the week. Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) came down below the 4,700-mark and ended at 4,664.91 points, shedding 98.31 points or 2.06 percent.
The two others indices also declined. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips lost 41.48 points or 2.34 percent to close at 1,730.94 points. The DSE Shariah Index went down by 18.40 points or 1.63 percent to close at 1,112.52 points.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower for the third straight week with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX – lost 182.78 points or 2.06 percent to close the week at 8,671.64 points.
The total turnover came down to BDT 13.44 billion against BDT 15.08 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover for the week averaged BDT 2.68 billion, registering a decline of 10.91 percent over the previous week’s average of BDT 3.01 billion.
“The stock market continued its bearish streak for the third consecutive weeks as the investors remained watchful amid the deepening political strife,” said International Leasing Securities, in its weekly market analysis.
LankaBangla Securities said: “Uncertainty in political front took a new turn over speculation about the probable arrest of the opposition leader last week which made the investors shaky”.
IDLC Investments said: “Market remained subdued for another week as the bleakness continued. With no indication of untangling political fiasco, shredding in the capital market appeared to be inevitable”.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 318 issues traded, 250 declined, 53 advanced and 15 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Shahjibazar Power Company dominated the week’s top turnover chart with shares worth BDT 687.85 million changing hands followed by Lafarge Surma Cement, SIBL, Summit Alliance Port and BSCCL.
Shahjibazar Power was also the week’s top gainer, posting a rise of 20.40 percent following its category change while UCBL was the week’s worst loser, plunging by 24.92 percent.
BBN/SSR/AD-06Mar15-12:10 pm (BST)