DSE loses ground further

The Dhaka Stock Exchange continued to witness selloffs for the second straight week as investors were cautious due to the extreme volatility.

The liquidity crisis in the money market, rising inflation and interest rate, and widening current account deficit complicate the macroeconomic outlook of Bangladesh, which weighed on investors, dealers say. 

In the past week ended on Thursday, the benchmark DSEX index was down 56 points or 0.8 per cent to close at 6,585. In two weeks, it lost 172 points.

“The equity indices of the Dhaka bourse witnessed another bearish week as investors continued selling off their shares to prevent further loss amidst ongoing market volatility,” said EBL Securities in a note. 

Turnover continued to decrease as the imposed 2 per cent lower circuit limit resulted in a sharp drop in market participation as the prices of a number of stocks remain dearer, it said. 

The weekly turnover stood at 566 crore, down 6.9 per cent from Tk 608 crore in the previous week.

Investors remained pessimistic as liquidity crunch in the money market, rising inflation and interest rate, and widening current account deficit further complicated the macroeconomic outlook of Bangladesh, said the brokerage firm. 

Investors were mostly active in miscellaneous (12.6 per cent), engineering (11.5 per cent) and financial institution (10.9 per cent) sectors. 

Most of the sectors witnessed negative performances out of which tannery (-2.8 per cent), services & real estate (-2.6 per cent) & IT (-2.4 per cent) witnessed the most corrections while paper (4.0 per cent), jute (0.6 per cent) and pharmaceuticals & chemicals (0.3per cent) witnessed price appreciations.

The most traded stocks in the past week included Beximco Ltd, IPDC, Sonali Paper, Aman Feed, Lafarge Surma Cement Bangladesh, Genex Infosays, Provati Insurance, Fortune Shoes, and Square Pharmaceuticals. 

The top losers were JHRM, IPDC, Prime Insurance, Sonali Paper, Imam Button, HR Textile, Savar Refractoriness and Meghna Pet.