Stocks break 6-week gaining streak amid profit booking

 Stocks ended lower last week that ended Thursday, breaking the six straight week of gaining streak as investors pocketed profit almost throughout the week.
The week featured all five trading sessions. The market retraced all the sessions during the week except one when it closed flat in green.
Week-on-week, the prime index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) -- DSEX -- went down by 85.76 points or 1.77 per cent to close the week to 2-week low to 4,759.33 points.
The Shariah Index (DSES) follow the same pace losing slightly by 0.61 points or 0.06 per cent to close the week at 995.74 points.
However, the DS30 index, comprising blue chips continued to perform well, gaining 14.75 points or 0.88 per cent to close at 1,696.66 points, driven mostly by strong performance of certain Large and Mid-Cap scrips.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower, with its Selective Categories Index -- CSCX -- lost 161.05 points or 1.69 per cent to close the week at 9,362.00 points.
Market participation at DSE remained sluggish during the week. The total market turnover for the week stood at Tk 28.96 billion against Tk 36.64 billion in the previous week.
The daily turnover averaged Tk 5.79 billion in this week, registering 21.0 per cent decline over the previous week's average Tk 7.33 billion.
"Market has observed a correction phase in this week. It seems to be a natural profit booking as market is standing over 13.0 per cent return since the beginning of 2014," commented LankaBangla Securities, in its weekly market analysis.
Market average turnover dropped 21.0 per cent this week. "This is indicating that selling pressure is getting thinner at lower prices," said the stock broker.
According to Bangladesh Bank (BB), banking system has now Tk 901 billion of excess liquidity. This huge excess liquidity is piling up as investment proposals were low in 2013 due to unfavourable business environment caused by political unrest, the stock broker said.
"This excess liquidity is expected to lower interest rates further in the economy. So we can expect capital gain from bond holdings of financial institutions which are considered as held for trading securities," said the stock broker.
On the other hand, this excess liquidity will give asset prices a boost," the stock broker added.
"Reverting previous six week's gain, this week was halted by profit booking and investors' cautious stance," IDLC Investments said, in its weekly market analysis.
Meanwhile, certain Large and Mid-Cap scrips captured leading position in the top turnover list. No surprises and apparent cool down of market rally assisted average daily turnover down.
However, portfolio re-balancing prevailed supported by the expectations of upcoming corporate declarations, it said.
Investment outlook remained standstill over imminent corporate declarations. But, ending session imitated whole week with declining turnover, said the IDLC Investments.
"This week the main index have gone down a bit due to some profit taking, but the impact was not so detrimental, since little bit of correction failed to dampen the interest of investors regarding participation in trading," observed Zenith Investments.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 298 issues traded during the week, 244 declined, 48 advanced and 6 remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
Among the major sectors, top gaining sectors of the week were pharmaceuticals 4.2 per cent, life insurance 3.3 per cent and fuel & power 2.1 per cent respectively. Conversely, top losing sectors were IT sector 6.1 per cent, service & real estate 4.8 per cent and general insurance 4.6 per cent respectively.
Two listed company - GrameenPhone (GP) and NCC Bank Mutual Fund-1 made corporate declaration in this week. GP declared 140 per cent cash while NCC Bank Mutual Fund-1 recommended 10 per cent cash dividend for their investors.
The market capitalisation of the DSE went down slightly by 0.68 per cent as it was Tk 2,919.36 billion at the opening day of the week and it stood at Tk 2,899.33 billion in closing day of the week.
A new company - AFC Agro Biotech - made its debut trading at DSE on Tuesday. The newcomer gained 550 per cent from its issue price of Tk 10 and posted a second highest turnover worth Tk 294.1 million on that day.
Square Pharma dominated the week's top turnover chart with shares worth Tk 1.75 billion changing hands during the week followed by BSCCL, Meghna Petroleum, Olympic and Jamuna Oil.
BSCCL was the week's top gainer, posting a rise of 15.89 per cent while Stylecraft was the week's worst losers, slumping by 14.0 per cent.