Stocks extend losing streak for 4th week

The stock market plummeted for the fourth straight week that ended Thursday with participation remained sluggish as profit booking and panic sale dominated throughout the week.
The week featured four trading sessions instead of five due to public holiday on Monday. Among them, the market lost first three sessions while last one closed positive.
Week-on-week, the prime index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSEX) went down by 76.41 points or 1.65 per cent to close the week at 4,558.93 points.
The other two indices saw sharp decline. The DS30, comprising blue chips lost 34.20 points or 2.05 per cent to close at 1,635.38 points. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) went down by 24.62 points or 2.43 per cent to close at 989.48 points.
The port city bourse --- the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also went down last week with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX lost 170.78 points or 1.89 per cent to close the week at 8,859.65 points.
Market participation at DSE dropped further. The total market turnover for the week stood at Tk 12.30 billion against Tk 20.52 billion in the previous week as the week witnessed four trading sessions instead of previous week's five sessions.
Consequently, the average daily turnover plunged to Tk 3.07 billion, registering 25.05 per cent decline over the previous week's average of Tk 4.10 billion.
"Grasping of realized gain in Large Cap scrips caused the week's downturn," commented IDLC Investments, in its weekly market analysis.
Additionally, marginal level of panic sale reverberated and continued throughout the week. Triggered by those, prime index DSEX lost 76 points over the week to end at 4,559 points, said the merchant bank.
"As cautious stance came up-front, market activity became sluggish, causing average turnover declining further. Amid the shaky sentiment, investors put much intention on re-balancing their portfolio in line with loss-aversion strategy," the merchant bank observed.
"Starting with the decline in financial sector scrips especially bank, market stayed gloomy throughout the week. Coupled with this, frequent spells of sell pressure, particularly in Large Cap scrips forced the market sentiment to retract, significantly," the merchant bank added.
"Market experienced severe selling pressure in the first three days of this week. A psychological support level of 4,500 points moved back the index to green zone at the last trading day of this week," said LankaBangla Securities.
"Banking sector market capitalisation was up by 0.22 per cent at the end of week after losing 4.27 per cent in previous week. The lower valuation level of banking sector might have allured value investors a little bit," said the stock broker.
"This week the country's capital market witnessed considerable drop coupled with sluggish investors' participation," said International Leasing Securities, in its weekly market analysis.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 301 issues traded during the week, 224 declined, 65 advanced and 12 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
A new issue --- Emerald Oil Industries, made debut on Wednesday and gained 400 per cent from its initial public offering (IPO) price of Tk 10. The newcomer also topped the turnover chart with a liquidity of Tk 361.3 million on the debut day.  
Most of the sectors suffered from the market setback last week. Among the major sectors, top gaining sectors of the week were food & allied 1.6 per cent, bank 0.22 per cent and IT sector 0.01 per cent respectively.
The other large cap sectors especially the pharmaceuticals and fuel & power went down sharply during the week, losing 3.05 per cent and 2.53 per respectively. Telecommunications lost 1.63 per cent and NBFIs lost 0.35 per cent in the week.
A total of nine listed companies - Global Insurance, Pioneer Insurance, Berger Paints, Dhaka Bank, IPDC, Summit Alliance, First Lease Finance & Investments, Republic Insurance and Linde Bangladesh made corporate declaration during the week.
The market capitalisation of the DSE went down by 1.11 per cent as it was Tk 2,888.33 billion on the opening day of the week and it stood at Tk 2,856.13 billion on closing session of the week.
The investors' attention was mostly focused on pharmaceuticals and engineering sectors captured leading positions in turnover, having 12.75 per cent and 11.89 per cent respectively of the week's total value.
Square Pharma dominated the week's top turnover chart with shares worth Tk 825.71 million changing hands during the week followed by Bangladesh Shipping Corporation, Emerald Oil Industries, Padma Oil and Lafarge Surma Cement.
Industrial Prom & Dev. Co. of BD Ltd (IPDC) was the week's top gainer, posting a rise of 13.11 per cent while Southeast Bank was the week's worst loser, slumping by 13.24 per cent following its price adjustment after record date.