BBN file photo
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)-Bangladesh’s stocks witnessed yet another bearish week, extending the losing streak for the third straight week, as jittery investors continued their selling binge to prevent further losses.
The prime index of the major bourse also tumbled below the ‘psychological’ threshold of 5,000-mark during the week, hitting 32-month low amid mounting selling pressure.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 79.13 points or 1.58 per cent to close at 4934.
The DSEX has lost a cumulative 303 points in the past three straight weeks and the market-cap shed BDT 194 billion during the period under review.
The two other indices also followed the suit. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, shed 21.14 points to finish at 1,737 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 10.28 points to close at 1,156.
The total turnover on the prime bourse stood at BDT 16.86 billion last week, down from BDT 19.73 billion in the week before, as last week saw four trading days instead of usual five.
The daily turnover averaged out at BDT 4.21 billion, which was 6.81 per cent higher over the previous week’s average of BDT 3.94 billion.
Confidence crisis, the government move to divert “idle funds” of state entities, telecoms regulator’s row with GP and soaring non-performing loans continued to haunt the investor sentiment, according to market operators.
They also said the growing spat with GP has taken a new turn after the mobile operator announced its legal battle against the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission over an audit claim.
The financial sector is not performing well, as investors are suffering from confidence crisis due to soaring non-performing loans, which hit hard the bank stocks that lost 1.73 per cent in the outgoing week, they added.
They also said that fall of large-cap stocks like British American Tobacco, Square Pharmaceuticals, United Power, and City Bank played a major role in the bearish trend.
Most of the major sectors showed negative performances, with power sector losing the highest of 5.10 per cent, followed by food (3.01 per cent) banking (1.73 per cent) engineering (1.71 per cent), non-bank financial institutions (1.68 per cent) and pharma (0.10 per cent).
Losers outnumbered the gainers, as out of 355 issues traded, 276 closed lower and 66 higher while 13 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor in the outgoing week.
National Tubes dominated the week’s turnover chart, with shares worth BDT 1.02 billion changing hands during the week.
National Tubes was also the week’s best performer, posting a gain of 30.87 per cent while the United Power was the worst loser, shedding 117.39 per cent following its price adjustment after record date.
On the other hand, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also ended lower, with its CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI – losing 281 points to settle at 14,982 and the Selective Categories Index – CSCX – shedding 171 points to finish the week at 9,095.
BBN/SSR/AD
