Stocks fail to sustain rally amid cautious trading

The stock market returned to the red last week after previous week's moderate gain with significant improvement in turnover as the investors kept their attention to the national budget.
The week featured all five trading sessions and four sessions suffered loss while one session ended in the positive.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) dipping below 4,400 point-mark and ended at 4,396.54 points, shedding 33.93 points or 0.77 per cent.
The other two indices, however, ended positive. The DS30, comprising blue chips, gained 13.68 points or 0.85 per cent to close at 1,622.95 points. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) went up by 15.01 points or 1.51 per cent to close at 1,007.83 points.
The port city bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also went down last week that ended Thursday with its Selective Categories Index (CSCX) losing 134.92 points or 1.59 per cent to close the week at 8,334.07 points.
The total turnover at DSE recovered significantly from previous week's sluggish trading activities. The total turnover of the week amounted to Tk 20.29 billion which was Tk 13.03 billion in the previous week.
The average daily turnover for the week stood at Tk 4.06 billion, registering an increase of 55.6 per cent over the previous week's average of Tk 2.61 billion.
"Mixed budget expectation of FY 2014-15 and growing worry over government's strong position on bringing down the banks' capital market exposure, pulled the index down in four consecutive sessions," commented LankaBangla Securities, in its weekly market analysis.
Market lost the momentum of the previous week but average daily turnover was 55.6 per cent up from previous week showing higher participation from investors, said the stock broker.
Cement and some engineering stocks showed up move with expectation of allocation of fund for Padma Bridge in the budget, said the stock broker.
IDLC Investments, in its weekly market analysis, said "Market was slow after recent early-year rally, particularly at higher valuation multiples as budgetary expectations were only enough to create little buzz across the bourse".
Large Cap stocks dominated the turnover list. Besides, directional movement was absent during the week. As the week ended, investors were in sell-off mode to be in safe territory, the merchant said.
"As the deposit rates of the banks and NBFIs were coming down, it has much expected that the investable fund may flow to capital market investment on a risk-adjusted basis," the merchant added.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 303 issues traded during the week, 229 declined, 66 advanced and eight issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
The major sectors saw mixed performance in the week. Cement and telecommunication and engineering sectors posted a staggering of 8.38 per cent, 6.94 per cent and 5.07 per cent gain respectively. Pharmaceuticals advanced marginally by 0.87 per cent.
NBFIs, food and allied suffered heavily with losing 4.79 per cent and 4.58 per cent respectively. Banks and fuel and power also ended in red losing 4.23 per cent and 1.17 per cent respectively.
Only one company - Wata Chemicals declared 30 per cent stock dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2013 last week. Following its dividend decoration, its share price jumped 714.54 per cent on June 2.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) formed a probe body to investigate its 'unusual' share price hike on June 3.
The market capitalisation of the DSE went up marginally by 0.35 per cent as it was Tk 2,884.87 billion on the opening day of the week and it stood at Tk 2,895.09 billion on closing session of the week.
GP dominated the week's top turnover chart with shares worth Tk 1.84 billion changing hands during the week followed by Lafarge Surma Cement, Meghna Petroleum, BSRM Steels and Heidelberg Cement.
Wata Chemicals Ltd was the week's top gainer, posting a rise of 529.60 per cent following its corporate declaration last week while Union Capital was the week's worst loser, slumping by 16.18 per cent.