Stocks snap seven-week winning streak

The stock market saw a correction in the outgoing week, snapping a seven-week winning streak, as risk-averse investors chose to book quick profit on large-cap stocks.
Week on week, the DSEX, the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 73.13 points or 1.24 per cent to settle at 5,836, after hitting a 22 months high in the previous week.
The key index, however, added 1,045 points in the past seven consecutive weeks due mainly to growing confidence of investors riding on regulatory efforts to bring disciple in the market and faster economic recovery.
Market operators said cautious investors booked profit on quick-gaining stocks after a seven-week price surge while some others were busy rebalancing their portfolios ahead of year-end corporate declarations.
The stock market regulator's decision to probe stocks with unusual price movement, turnover and EPS changes triggered a correction although the regulator latter suspended the decision, said an analyst, seeking anonymity.
The market faced major corrections in the first two sessions and stayed mostly flat afterwards as the market appeared to cool down from the investors' heightened enthusiasm that was seen over last seven weeks, commented EBL Securities.
The stockbroker noted that upcoming earning declaration was another reason which caused investors to take cautious approach.
A section of investors persistent their sell-offs aiming to book gains while some others were busy rebalancing their portfolio ahead of earnings declarations, according to weekly market review of International Leasing Securities.
The outgoing week saw five trading days as usual. Of them, first two sessions saw sharp decline while last three witnessed modest gain with high volatility.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 28.33 points to finish at 2,208 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 28.86 points to finish at Tk 1,294.
The weekly turnover on the prime bourse stood at Tk 78.25 billion, down from Tk 93.43 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover averaged out at Tk 15.64 billion, 16.25 per cent down from the previous week's average of Tk 18.68 billion.
Block trade contributed 1.5 per cent to the total weekly turnover, where stocks like Provati Insurance, SK Trims & Industries, S.S Steel, Beximco and Al-Arafah Islami Bank dominated the block board, according to City Bank Capital Resources.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also fell 1.88 per cent to Tk 4,922 billion on Thursday, from the all-time high of Tk 5,017 billion recorded in the closing session of the week before.
Among the major sectors, cement faced the highest correction of 10.5 per cent, followed by telecommunication with 5.20 per cent, engineering 4.8 per cent, textile 2.9 per cent and pharma 2.10 per cent.
On the other hand, food and allied, general insurance and banking sectors posted marginal return of 1.6 per cent, 1.57 per cent and 1.0 per cent respectively.
The port city's bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also ended lower, with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - losing 204 points to settle at 1,7021 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX - shedding 119 points to finish the week at 10,272.
Of the issues traded, 185 declined, 83 advanced and 45 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city's bourse traded 122.76 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover value of Tk 4.54 billion during the week.
Energypac Power Generation, which made debut Tuesday, was locked in upper limit circuit breaker at Tk 76.6 for the third day in a row on Thursday, making it the top gainer.
The newly listed company's share price soared 147.1 per cent or Tk 45.6 each in three straight sessions from its offer price of Tk 31.

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