Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)-Bangladesh’s stocks extended their losing streak for the fourth week in a row amid volatility as investors’ confidence remained shaky amid lingering political strife.
The week featured five trading sessions as usual.
Of them, prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) slumped 105.61 points in the first two sessions while last three sessions recovered 66.6 points.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the DSE, came down below the 4,700-mark and ended the week at 4,685.04 points, shedding 39.01 points or 0.83 percent.
The DS30, comprising blue chips index moved down by 4.53 points or 0.83 percent to close at 1,733.22 points.
The DSE Shariah Index dropped 5.48 points or 0.49 percent to close at 1,110.21 points.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also closed lower last week with its Selective Categories Index – CSCX – lost 28.7 points or 0.32 percent to close the week at 8,707.33 points.
Gloomy political frontier kept investors remained cautious to fresh fund injection and the total turnover for the week amounted to BDT 10.71 billion against BDT 10.85 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover for the week averaged BDT 2.14 billion, registering a decline of 1.27 percent over the previous week’s average of BDT 2.17 billion.
An analyst said: “The lingering political unrest in the country suppressed investor’s confidence as a result market remained in bearish mood”.
However, lucrative prices at some fundamentally strong stocks, putting slight level of buy pressure at the later part of the week, said the stock broker.
IDLC Investments said: “The down trend extended to another week of correction amid slow activities”.
Though, market faced a few positive sessions, resulted by actions of the bargain hunters, it was insufficient recover from the early in the week correction, said the merchant banker.
“Continuous blockade with political uncertainty reached one month, affecting investors’ sentiment seriously,” the merchant bank added.
“Quarterly earnings declarations of some companies for the Oct 14-Dec 14 period sent mixed signals to investors,” said LankaBangla Securities in its weekly analysis.
The losers took a lead over the gainers as out of 319 issues traded, 204 declined, 94 advanced and 21 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Newly listed IFAD Autos dominated the week’s top turnover chart with shares worth BDT 740.09 million changing hands followed by GP, Lafarge Surma Cement, C&A Textiles and Aamra Technologies.
International Leasing & Financial Services was the week’s top gainer, posting a rise of 11.20 percent while Shahjibazar Power was the week’s worst loser, plunging by 20.99 percent.
BBN/BB/AS-6Feb15-6:00pm (BST)