Stocks remain unsteady in fear of political unrest

Extending the losing streak for the second straight week, Dhaka stocks remained volatile this week as cautious investors preferred profit-booking and reducing their capital market exposure owing to the fear of a resurgence of political movements in the country.

The market experienced volatility, with investors being active on both sides of the trading fence as risk-averse investors continued their selling spree in order to safeguard their funds from the ailing market, while consecutive corrections created lucrative investment opportunities for bargain hunters, stockbrokers said.

Sellers, however, took the upper hand by the end of this week, leading the market to end in negative territory.

The DSEX, the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), fell 9.6 points, or 0.2 per cent, to settle at 6,330.

The average daily market turnover also dropped by 9.0 per cent to Tk 592 crore this week against the average tally of Tk 651 in the previous week.

Investors were mostly active in the general insurance sector, with the sector topping the turnover chart with a contribution of 22.3 per cent of the total weekly turnover of the DSE, followed by food and allied (14.8 per cent) and miscellaneous (12.3 per cent).

Sectors exhibited mixed returns, with the miscellaneous sector registering the highest gain of 1.6 per cent, while the life insurance faced the highest correction of 2.0 per cent, according to the weekly market review of EBL Securities, a stockbroker.

The market performed five sessions this week, with the market starting the week with a negative note of 0.09 per cent on Sunday and remained negative on Monday (0.14 per cent) as well.

However, the market closed the Tuesday’s session with a gain of 0.22 per cent, and continued the positivity on Wednesday with a rise of 0.07 per cent.

The market finally closed the week with Thursday with a correction of 0.21 per cent.

As per the weekly market review of Brac-epl Stock Brokerage, all the financial sectors registered negative performance this week, with the general insurance experiencing the highest loss of 2.04 per cent, followed by life insurance (2.03 per cent), bank (0.33 per cent), mutual fund (0.20 per cent), and NBFI (0.02 per cent).                               

The non-financial sectors posted mixed performance this week, with the pharmaceutical booking the highest gain of 0.24 per cent, followed by food and allied (0.09 per cent), and fuel and power (0.02 per cent), while the engineering sector faced the highest loss of 0.15 per cent, followed by telecommunication (0.00 per cent), it added.

Libra Infusions Limited rose 15.9 per cent to become the week’s top gainer, while Meghna Insurance Company Limited suffered 15.02 per cent becoming the week’s top loser.