Stocks tumble for third straight week

Babul Barman
Stocks witnessed sharp decline last week for the third straight week with key index of the prime bourse hitting five-month low as investors sold shares throughout the week amid shaky confidence.
The week featured four trading sessions instead of five as the market was closed Tuesday due to public holiday on the occasion of Buddha Purnima. Among them, market lost all four trading sessions.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) went down sharply by 138.16 points or 3.03 per cent to close the week at 4,416.96 points, hitting five-month low since January 9, 2014.
The other two indices also saw steep decline. The DS30, comprising blue chips lost 61.62 points or 3.70 per cent to close at 1,604.39 points. The DSE Shariah Index went down by 28.08 points or 2.77 per cent to close at 984.84 points.
The port city bourse -- the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE)-- also dropped sharply last week with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX-- lost 254.56 points or 2.90 per cent to close the week at 8,508.84 points.
The total turnover at DSE amounted to Tk 14.55 billion in the week which was 23.92 per cent lower from the previous week's total value of Tk 19.13 billion.
The average daily turnover of the week stood at Tk 3.64 billion, registering a decline of 4.90 per cent over the previous week's average of Tk 3.83 billion.
 "Investor sentiment seems to be highly bearish. Poor first quarter performance by listed companies and banks' reduction of capital market exposure is getting heavier on market," commented LankaBangla Securities, in its weekly market analysis.
The High Court on Wednesday scrapped the provision imposed by the securities regulator for sponsor-directors to individually hold at least 2.0 per cent shares in listed companies.
 "Investors might have taken this negatively. They may feel that if sponsor-directors hold more share, it will help improving corporate governance of listed entities," said the stock broker.
However, Appellate Division on Thursday stayed the order till May 22.
IDLC Investments said, "Investment-hostile economic and political state of the country strangled movements in the capital market, forcing investors to rethink their exposure".
 "Mixed quarterly earnings and corporate declaration kept investors nervous throughout this week," said the merchant bank.
Investors' confidence has been hit as any definite stock-wise or sector-wise trend failed to emerge in the market. Especially, financial sector behaved erratically, reflecting investors' underweighting of accounting numbers in recent investment decision making, said the merchant bank.
In the meantime, forward looking participants remained in the sideline, considering over budgetary incentives to the market. As a result, turnover stayed quite sluggish, the merchant bank added.
 "The bearish spell prolonged in the stock market. In the last four sessions DSEX lost 138.16 points. Large cap scrips like GP, Square Pharma, BATBC and Lafarge Surma Cement suffered big losses" said International Leasing Securities.
Meanwhile, Hwa Well Textiles made debut Wednesday, offering 341 per cent return on its maiden session. During the week, trading of Pharma Aids resumed and CVO Petrochemicals was placed to 'A' category from 'Z' category. At the same time, Wata Chemicals was transferred from OTC market to main market.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 303 issues traded during the week, 220 declined, 67 declined and 16 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
All the major sectors closed in red during the week, food & allied was the biggest loser of the week with 5.19 per cent loss. Pharmaceuticals lost 3.82 per cent and NBFI lost 3.78 per cent. Telecommunica-tions, fuel & power and banks also went down by 2.86 per cent, 2.41 per cent and 2.13 per cent respectively.
A total of four listed companies - MBL First Mutual Fund, AIBL First Islamic Mutual Fund, Purabi General Insurance and Orion Pharma made corporate declaration during the week.
MBL First Mutual Fund declared 3 per cent cash, AIBL First Islamic Mutual Fund 5.5 per cent cash, Purabi General Insurance declared 15 per cent stock and Orion Pharma recommended 15 per cent cash dividend for their investors.
The market capitalisation of the DSE went down sharply by 2.34 per cent as it was Tk 2,942.92 billion on the opening day of the week and it stood at Tk 2,874.15 billion on closing session of the week.
Grameenphone (GP) dominated the week's top turnover chart with shares worth Tk 670.05 million changing hands followed by Matin Spinning, Square Pharma, Lafarge Surma Cement and Hwa Well Textiles.
JMI Syringe & Medical Devices was the week's top gainer, posting a rise of 14.18 per cent while Renata was the week's worst loser, slumping by 25.62 per cent following its price adjustment after record date.