Stocks suffer a big jolt amid weak sentiment

Stocks suffered a major setback last week that ended Thursday, after remaining flat in the previous week, as investors went on a selling spree amid concerns about possible bleak economic outlook.
The week featured five trading sessions as usual. Of those, first session closed flat while last four witnessed sharp fall.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), came down below the 'psychological' threshold of 4,200-mark and closed the week at 17-month low of 4,192.21 points, plunging 181.13 points or 4.14 per cent.
The two other indices also saw steep fall. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips fell 75.59 points or 4.53 per cent to close at 1,592.76 points. The DSE Shariah Index shed 36.00 points or 3.39 per cent to close at 1,024.88 points.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also saw steep decline, with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX - plummeted 377.12 points or 4.60 per cent to close the week at 7,815.00 points.
Turnover, the most important indicator of the market, however, improved last week. The total turnover for the week stood at Tk 23.66 billion against Tk 17.10 billion the week before as last week saw five trading sessions instead of previous week's four.
The daily turnover for the week averaged Tk 4.73 billion, registering an increase of 10.72 per cent over the previous week's average of Tk 4.27 billion.
The investors' activity was mostly focused on power, pharma and engineering - the sectors that accounted for 29 per cent, 14 per cent and 13 per cent respectively of the week's total turnover.
"Wiping out last week's promising trading activities, market again caved in facing tidal sell pressure, as investors found no solid ground to expect a turnaround," said IDLC Investments, a merchant bank, in its weekly market analysis.
Although, many issues have reached a lucrative pricing level owing to indiscriminate sell off, investors were not motivated, lacking confidence on the stocks future growth and profitability in face of unstable political condition, said the merchant.
LankaBangla Securities, a stock broker, said, "Unstable political scenario, lowered investors' confidence and lack of foreign participation pulled down the benchmark index by 4.14 per cent last week as all went for hefty sell off".
"Market ended in red zone last week with higher volume. Situation remains bleak as investors are worried about Q1 corporate profitability," said the stock broker.
Among the large caps, GP, Square Pharma and Titas Gas lost 5.0 per cent, 2.8 per cent and 4.9 per cent last week which had a huge impact on the broad index, the stock broker added.
"Lack of confidence among the investors caused the prime bourse to witness a downbeat trend last week," said International Leasing Securities, in its weekly analysis.
In the earlier sessions investors seemed to prefer position taking stance, but the bearish momentum in the market forced most the participants to adopt shot-term trading strategy, it said.
Several investors also went for panicky sell-off during the week. However, the market turnover surged as both the optimist as well as pessimist group of investors were active during the week, said the International Leasing.
All the large-cap sectors retraced during the week. NBFIs registered the highest loss of 7.19 per cent over the week. Banks also went down by 5.54 per cent.
Telecommunications and pharmaceuticals also went down by 4.57 per cent and 3.52 per cent respectively. Power lost 2.90 per cent and food and allied retraced by 1.32 per cent. Cement went through a marginal correction of 0.72 per cent.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 318 issues traded, 257 declined, 47 advanced and 14 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Nine listed firms - National Tea Company, BD Thai Aluminium, Pioneer Insurance, Provatai Insurance, The Ibn Sina, Marico, Agrani Insurance, BSC and Mercantile Bank recommended dividend last week.
The market capitalisation of the DSE went down sharply by 3.16 per cent as it was Tk 3,131.49 billion on the opening day of the week and it stood at Tk 3,040.89 billion on closing day of the week.
United Power dominated the week's top turnover chart for the third straight week with shares worth Tk 2.83 billion changing hands during the week followed by KPCL, Western Marine, Shasha Denims and ACI Ltd.
Gemini Sea Food was the week's top gainer, posting a rise of 18.39 per cent while Dhaka Bank was the week's worst loser, plunging by 24.12 per cent following its price adjustment after record date.
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