Bearish spell continues as political unrest prolongs

Babul Barman | Published: March 07, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

The stock market passed yet another bearish week, extending the losing streak for the third week straight as the investors were in selling spree amid the deepening political strife.
The week retraced in all five trading sessions as depressed investors sold off stakes across the board throughout the week amid no improvement in the political front.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) dipped below the 'psychological' threshold of 4,700-mark and ended at 4,664.91 points, shedding 98.31 points or 2.06 per cent.
The two other indices also closed in the red. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips lost 41.48 points or 2.34 per cent to close at 1,730.94 points. The DSE Shariah Index went down by 18.40 points or 1.63 per cent to close at 1,112.52 points.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower for the third straight week with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX - lost 182.78 points or 2.06 per cent to close the week at 8,671.64 points.
Most of the investors preferred staying in the sideline. As a result, the total turnover came down to Tk 13.44 billion against Tk 15.08 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover for the week averaged Tk 2.68 billion, registering a decline of 10.9 per cent over the previous week's average of Tk 3.01 billion.
Majority of this paltry activity focused on bank, which captured 14.4 per cent of the week's total turnover as corporate declaration of the banks approached followed by power 13.6 per cent and engineering 11.8 per cent. Â
"The stock market continued its bearish streak for the third week as the investors remained watchful amid the deepening political strife," said International Leasing Securities, in its weekly market analysis.
Most of the market participants preferred to stay on the side line throughout the week as no sign of recovery was observed from the shaky economic outlook, the International Leasing said.
LankaBangla Securities said: "Uncertainty in political front took a new turn over speculation about the probable arrest of the opposition leader last week which made the investors shaky".
"Good corporate declaration from companies for the year ended on December 2014 could not bring investors' confidence to the market," said the stock broker.
IDLC Investments said: "Market remained subdued for another week as the bleakness continued. With no indication of untangling political fiasco, shredding in the capital market appeared to be inevitable".
The downbeat sentiment persisted despite series of corporate declarations showing up during the week, said the merchant bank.
Among the large-cap sectors, only cement posted a marginal gain of 0.11 per cent over the week.
All other major sectors closed in red. NBFIs posted the highest correction of 3.58 per cent followed by banks 2.50 per cent, pharmaceuticals 2.50 per cent and telecommunication 2.13 per cent. Food and allied went down by 1.88 per cent and power retraced by a marginal 0.28 per cent.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 318 issues traded, 250 declined, 53 advanced and 15 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Thirteen listed firms - Southeast Bank, Trust Bank, SIBL, Prime Bank, Pubali Bank, Bank Asia, Dutch-Bangla Bank, Al-Arafah Islami Bank, Heidelberg Cement, Singer BD, Linde BD, Sinobangla Industries and Union Capital declared dividend last week.
The market capitalisation of the DSE went down by 1.36 per cent as it was Tk 3,217.18 billion on the opening day of the week and it stood at Tk 3,173.52 billion on closing day of the week.
Shahjibazar Power Company dominated the week's top turnover chart with shares worth Tk 687.85 million changing hands followed by Lafarge Surma Cement, SIBL, Summit Alliance Port and BSCCL.
Shahjibazar Power was also the week's top gainer, posting a rise of 20.40 per cent following its category change news while UCBL was the week's worst loser, plunging by 24.92 per cent.
A new issue - Shasha Denims -- made trading debut last week, but failed to attract investors much as the company's share price increased only 6.0 per cent.
Each share of the company traded between Tk 50 and Tk 36.9 on the DSE before closing at Tk 37.1 from its issue price of Tk 35.
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