The downward trend in the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) continued for the fifth straight week ended Thursday as the investors remained confused and shaky over a number of factors.
The market tone during the week remained muted because of selling pressures triggered by some factors like securities regulator's proposal to review mutual fund rules and the central bank's order to wrap up activities of the brokerage house AB Bank Foundation, an arm of AB Bank and DSE's market cooling measures, according to the market operators.
AB Bank Foundation is one of the largest brokerage houses in the prime bourse.
The announcement of merger of Shinepukur Holdings Limited and Beximco Fisheries with the Beximco Limited also affected the market in the week, they pointed out.
The market barometers -- DSE General Index (DGEN) and All Share Price Index (DSI) -- tumbled 92.91 points and 67.91 points to close at 2889.35 and 2501.44 respectively on the last trading day of the week.
However, the DSE 20, comprising blue chips, gained 8.60 points to end at 2602.16.
The participation of institutional investors in trading was insignificant during the week, sources said.
About the current market, Akter H Sannamat, managing director of Prime Finance and Investment Limited, said, "The price earning ratio (PE) is now around 24, indicating that the market is still overvalued. So, the investors should be very careful before choosing any stock at the moment."
He added that the investors, particularly, small ones, should come in the market with long term investment plans besides short term, which will help reduce the risk of losing capital.
"Everybody come to the market aiming to gain but they have to learn to bear losses as well,'' Akter pointed out.
An investor said that the Securities and Exchange Commission and bourses should launch massive campaigns on how to choose the stocks in a volatile market.
The daily average turnover was up by 3.58 per cent to Tk 2.78 billion in the week against Tk 2.68 billion previously. The total market capitalisation however, came down slightly 0.47 per cent to Tk 969.35 billion from previous week's Tk 973.92 billion.
Out of 286 traded issues, share prices of 75 advanced, 170 declined, six remained unchanged and 35 were not traded.
The National Life Insurance was the biggest loser with the stock prices losing 26.07 per cent, followed by M Hossain Garments 17.31 per cent, Titas 15.88 per cent, Dulamia Cotton 15.87 per cent, Grameen One Mutual Fund One 14.67 per cent, East Land Insurance 14.18 per cent, City Bank 13.97 per cent, Prime Islami Life Insurance 13.83 per cent, ICB 13.54 per cent and 1st BSRS 13.41 per cent.
Beximco Pharma was the top turnover leader with shares worth Tk 1.29 billion traded, accounting for 9.23 per cent of the total market turnover.
Square Pharma was the second turnover leader with Tk 788.36 million traded, accounting for 5.67 per cent of the week's total turnover.
ACI Limited, Beximco, Apex Adelchi Footwear, Lanka Bangla Finance Company, Lafarge Surma Cement Limited, Keya Cosmetics, AIMS First Mutual Fund and BATBC were the other turnover leaders of the week.
During the week, Beximco Fisheries had the biggest gainer of 58.33 per cent, followed by Bd Thai Aluminum of 35.31 per cent, Shinepukur Holdings Limited 27.45 per cent, Agni Systems Limited 18.13 per cent and Monno Jutex 10.48 per cent.
Uttara Finance, Bata Shoe, Mona Food, Beximco and Beximco Pharma were the other gainers.
The A-category issues accounted for 88.90 per cent of the total turnover in value during the last week, while B-category issues shared 0.90 per cent, N-category 3.46 per cent and Z-category 6.74 per cent.
