Stocks posted marginal gain last week that ended Thursday, snapping two weeks of losing spell, as most of the investors were cautious in absence of any powerful motivations.
Turnover, an important indicator of the market, however, came down to Tk 16.15 billion on the DSE last week, which was Tk 22.43 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover averaged Tk 3.23 billion, which was 28 per cent lower than the previous week's average of Tk 4.49 billion.
"Lower volume of trade reflected that investors were still unconvinced over the market's stability while some opportunistic investors took position on undervalued stocks in later part of the week, keeping the market in positive territory," said an analyst.
Overall activities remained confined on, engineering, textiles and pharmaceuticals sectors, where they captured 20 per cent, 13 per cent, 12 per cent respectively of the week's total turnover.
The week featured five trading sessions as usual. Of them, opening session of the week saw sharp fall while last four closed marginally higher.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 11.69 points or 0.26 per cent to settle at 4,484.53.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, also advanced 2.38 points or 0.14 per cent to finish at 1,721.06. However, the DSE Shariah Index saw a fractional loss of 0.80 point or 0.07 per cent to close at 1,085.57.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended slightly higher after two weeks fall with its Selective Categories Index, CSCX, advancing 14.13 points or 0.17 per cent to settle at 8,383.52.
"The market witnessed a slow effort for recovery last week from the previous two weeks' bearish streak amid lackluster trading" said International Leasing Securities, a stockbroker, in its weekly analysis.
The stockbroker noted that in the last four sessions of the week buyers outperformed the sellers while a major part of the investors remained vigilant due to absence of any clear indication of the market outlook.
LankaBangla Securities, a stockbroker, said, "Downward trend of the market halted as the benchmark index turned back to positive territory touching a support level, though market participation remained significantly low".
Majority of the large-cap stocks declined during the week. Berger Paints and United Power faced erosion of 4.8 per cent and 1.9 per cent respectively, said the stockbroker.
"The market witnessed marginal gain with declining turnover as some investors were in 'wait-and-see' mode with an expectation that the market will run bullish in the next week," said Royal Capital, a stockbroker, in an analysis.
IDLC Investments, a merchant bank, said, "Lucratively priced stocks attracted the investors to take position along different cap classes".
The merchant bank noted that the market participation declined significantly amid surging intra-session volatility throughout the week.
Among the major economic updates, some positive macroeconomic news flowed in like export surging with 8.9 per cent year-on-year growth during the first eight months of FY'16 and inflation touching 41 months low at 5.6 per cent in February, said the merchant bank.
Four listed companies - Bank Asia, BD Lamps, Wata Chemicals and Lafarge Surma Cement-- recommended dividend last week.
Bank Asia recommended 15 per cent cash and 5.0 per cent stock dividend, BD Lamps 20 per cent cash, Wata Chemicals 10 per cent cash and 10 per cent stock and Lafarge Surma Cement recommended 10 per cent cash dividend last week.
The gainers took a modest lead over the losers as out of 325 issues traded, 163 closed higher, 124 lower and 38 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor during the week.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also edged up by 0.13 per cent as it was Tk 3,103.56 billion on the opening day of the week and it stood at Tk 3,107.72 billion on closing day of the week.
Bangladesh Steel Re-rolling Mills dominated the week's turnover chart last week with 4.80 million shares worth Tk 841 million changing hands followed by LankaBangla Finance, Orion Pharmaceuticals, CMC Kamal and Quasem Drycells.
Eastern Lubricants was the week's best performer, posting a rise of 39.95 per cent while GPH Ispat was the week's worst loser, plunging by 28.19 per cent following its price adjustment after right share record date.
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