Stocks continue bleeding for 4th week

The country’s premier bourse Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) remained dismal for the fourth week in a row as investors continued offloading their holdings due to the absence of any potential outlook that the market could revive.

Investors preferred short-term gains since their willingness to take long-term bets in equities weakened owing to an unclear market indication that eventually led to volatility in the market, according to market insiders.

Moreover, liquidation opportunities got squeezed as investors did not perceive the majority of scrips lucrative at their reference floor price, another reason to lower the market activity.

The DSEX, the key index of the capital bourse, tumbled 41.1 points or 0.7 per cent to close the week at 6,205.

Among other indices, the DS30, the blue-chip index, fell 2.86 points to 2,221, and the DSES, the Shariah-based index, lost 10.76 points to 1,355.

The investors’ participation in the market declined to a drastic level, with the DSE turnover averaging out at Tk 273 crore this week against the average turnover of Tk 422 crore in the previous week.

With this count, the average turnover of the premier bourse dropped by over 35 per cent this week over the previous week.

The market performed four sessions this week, with the DSE started the week on a negative note on Sunday.

It also remained negative in the remaining three trading sessions.

The market remained closed on Tuesday due to a government holiday.

Investors were mostly active in the IT sector, with the sector topping the DSE turnover with a contribution of 14.6 per cent to the total weekly turnover of the Dhaka bourse, followed by food (13.4 per cent) and pharma (11.7 per cent).

ICB AMCL CMSF Golden Jubilee Mutual Fund topped the gainer list with a return of 20 per cent, while Bangladesh General Insurance Company Ltd was the week’s worst sufferer with a loss of 19.1 per cent.

Most of the sectors closed negative this week, with the paper sector posting the highest loss of 8.5 per cent.

On the other hand, the travel sector posted the highest gain of 1.0 per cent.

Most of the financial sectors registered negative performance this week with the general insurance experiencing the highest loss of 3.25 per cent, followed by life insurance (1.74 per cent), NBFI (0.04 per cent), and bank (0.02 per cent).

Most of the non-financial sectors also displayed negative performance in the week, with the pharmaceutical experiencing the highest loss of 0.55 per cent, followed by food & allied (0.29 per cent), engineering (0.17 per cent), fuel & power (0.10 per cent), and telecommunication (0.00 per cent).