Unrest upends investors

Stocks extended their losing streak for the third consecutive week that ended Thursday as political uncertainty dampened investors' confidence.
The week featured five trading sessions as usual. Of them, four sessions ended lower while one session saw marginal gain.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) went down by 73.91 points or 1.54 per cent to close at 4,724.05 points.
The two other indices also closed lower. The DS30, comprising blue chips index moved down by  31.05 points or 1.75 per cent to close at 1,747.76 points. The DSE Shariah Index shed 20.64 points or 1.82 per cent to close at 1,115.70 points.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower last week with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX - plunged 188.81 points or 2.12 per cent to close the week at 8,736.03 points.
Gloomy political frontier kept investors cautious to inject fresh fund and the total turnover for the week came down to Tk 10.85 billion from Tk 12.88 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover for the week averaged Tk 2.17 billion, registering a decline of 15.79 per cent over the previous week's average of Tk 2.57 billion.
The investors' attention was mostly focused on textiles and power - the sectors that accounted for 18 per cent and 13 per cent respectively of the week's total turnover value.
"Amid worsening political condition and continuous blockade, market lacked any motivation to stay optimistic," said IDLC Investments, in its weekly market analysis.
Consequently market entered the downtrend, which has continued for the last three weeks, said the merchant bank.
Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) for the second half of FY 2015 became available on the last session of the week. However, as political stability was the prime concern for investors, MPS expectation hardly came to impact the market, said the merchant bank.
LankaBangla Securities said: "Market went farther down amid uncertain political situation".
The market continues its bearish sentiment in the week amid countrywide political instability and lingering political unrest in the country which suppressed investor's confidence, said the stock broker.
"Bearish stance in the market made the investors cautious amid the quarterly earnings season," the stock broker added.
On the money market front, forex reserve, recorded on 27th Jan'15, increased further in continuation of previous week to $ 21921.63 million, while call money rate fell to 8.51 per cent, the stock broker said.
All the major sectors closed in red last week except food and allied sector which gained 3.72 per cent due to price appreciation of its heavy height constituent BATBC. BATBC gained 10.27 per cent alone during the week.
NBFIs went down by 0.22 per cent. Telecommunication posted heavy loss - 5.08 per cent and power went down by 2.47 per cent. Cement and pharmaceuticals retraced by 1.37 per cent and 0.40 per cent respectively. Banks closed lower with 0.87 per cent loss.
The losers took a lead over the gainers out of 316 issues traded, 236 advanced, 64 declined and 16 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
The market capitalisation of the DSE went down by 1.35 per cent as it was Tk 3,221.14 billion on the opening day of the week and it stood at Tk 3,177.70 billion on closing day of the week.
Newly listed C & A Textiles dominated the week's top turnover chart with shares worth Tk 781.20 million changing hands followed by GP, Lafarge Surma Cement, Alltex Industries and CVO Petrochemical.
Phoenix Finance First Mutual Fund was the week's top gainer, posting a rise of 20.45 per cent following its corporate declaration of 10 per cent cash dividend last week while recently listed National Feed Mills was the week's worst loser, plunging by 15.14 per cent.
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