Sluggishness in share trading on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) continued in the past week that ended Thursday with limited participation of the investors.
The market remained subdued during the week because of a debate over the mutual fund rules and reduced activity of institutional investors, said market sources.
The market barometers - DSE General Index (DGEN) and All Share Price Index (DSI) shed 37.15 points and 18.65 points to close at 2981.99 and 2569.35 respectively on the last trading day of the week.
However, the DSE 20 blue chip index continued to gain for the second consecutive week, posting a rise of 29.15 points to end at 2593.56.
The blue chips dominated the market throughout the week, indicating that the investors are putting their funds on companies with good fundamentals which, a market player said, is a good sign for the market.
The week also invasion of a new virus in the computer networks belonging to a large number of brokerage houses, which forced the DSE to halt the trading and cut the session by three hours Wednesday. The system came back to normalcy on the following day.
On Sunday, a group of investors formed human chain in front of the DSE building to protest the Securities and Exchange Commission's move to review the mutual fund rules.
The daily average turnover was down by 5.26 per cent to Tk 2.68 billion in the week against Tk 2.83 billion previously. The total market capitalisation however, increased slightly by 1.02 per cent to Tk 973.92 billion from previous week's Tk 964.077 billion.
Out of 287 traded issues, share prices of 110 advanced, 124 declined and 10 remained unchanged.
Stock prices of the mutual funds continued to dip during the week due to the regulator's proposal on restricting the issuance of right on bonus shares against the backdrop of recent unusual price hike on speculation.
However, the mutual funds rebounded on the rumour that the SEC chairman might quit. But the SEC Chairman rejected the rumour outright.
Of the top ten losers during the week, seven were from mutual funds.
Stock prices of Grameen Mutual Fund (MF) One was the biggest loser of 28.16 per cent, followed by 1st BSRS 18.06 per cent, 1st ICB MF 16.74 per cent, 4th ICB MF 16.22 per cent, 5th ICB MF 15.07 per cent and ICB AMCL 1st NRB MF 14.86 per cent.
Since the debut trading day on July 2, 104750 shares out of total 21411728 of Titas Gas have been sold on both the bourses-DSE and CSE.
ACI Limited was the top turnover leader with shares worth Tk 933.863 million traded, accounting for 35.67 per cent of the total market turnover.
Beximco Pharma was the second turnover leader with Tk 736.046 million traded, accounting for 5.49 per cent of the week's total turnover.
Lanka Bangla Finance Company, Keya Cosmetics, Square Pharma , Beximco, AIMS First Mutual Fund, Apex Adelchi Footwear , Fareast Islami Life Insurance and Prime Finance were the other turnover leaders of the week.
Janata Insurance, Beximco, ACI Limited, Rangpur Foundry, Shinepukur Holdings, Beximco Fisheries, Aramit were the top gainers during the week.
The A-category issues accounted for 87.57 per cent of the total turnover in value during the last week, while B-category issues shared 0.89 per cent, G-category 0.00 per cent, N-category 5.44 per cent and Z-category 6.09 per cent.
