Stocks down for 5th week amid shaky confidence

The stock market extended losing streak for the fifth consecutive week that ended Thursday with sluggish trading activities as investors remained shaky amid ongoing volatile market sentiment.

The week featured four trading sessions instead of five due to public holiday on Wednesday - on the occasion of Independence Day. Among them, the market saw sharp decline in first two sessions while last two closed positive.

Week-on-week, the prime index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSEX) went down by 50.88 points or 1.12 per cent to close the week at 4,508.06 points.

The other two indices also ended lower. The DS30, comprising blue chips lost 27.03 points or 1.65 per cent to close at 1,608.35 points. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) went down by 7.85 points or 0.79 per cent to close at 981.63 points.

The port city bourse --- the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also went down for the fifth consecutive week with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX lost 86.64 points or 0.97 per cent to close the week at 8,773.01 points.

Market participation at DSE dropped further as turnover hitting fresh five months low on first trading day of the week. The total market turnover for the week stood at Tk 11.42 billion on DSE against Tk 12.30 billion in the previous week as this week also witnessed four trading sessions like previous one.

Consequently, the average daily turnover plunged to Tk 2.85 billion, registering 7.14 per cent decline over the previous week's average of Tk 3.07 billion.

"Current downtrend in the market continued with few unsuccessful resistances, this week. The bearish spell sucked up enthusiasm from the investors, leaving them directionless and timid," commented IDLC Investments, in its weekly market analysis.

Consequently, participation was conservative, bringing down average turnover level below Tk 3.0 billion, it said.

The week started in a waning tone, disappointing investors who were expecting turnaround, after the positive close of previous week's last trading session.

"Demoralized investment sentiment turned shaky amid ever shrinking volume, depleting breathing space for the participants. In this scenario market continued to sink," said the IDLC Investments.

Naturally, contrarians tried to get in and reverse the direction of the market, seeing 4,500 points level to break. However, their effort was not completely appreciated by retail investors, lacking confidence, said the merchant bank.

Subsequently, the week ended with cumulative net loss in DSEX, extending the downtrend for fifth consecutive week, the merchant bank added.

"Selling frenzy of investors continued over the week despite gains in last two trading sessions. First two days of the week were deep in red in continuation of the previous week," said Lankabangla Securities.

During the week, the major index of the bourse, DSEX dropped to 4,463 level at one point reaching near to support level of 4,456 which has brought back some investors from the sideline, said the stock broker.

"Buying pressure in some heavyweights companies during the last two trading sessions of the week pulled the index over 4,500 level," the stock broker said.

Institutional participation has gone down greatly as Bangladesh Bank is strictly monitoring capital market exposure of banks, said the stock broker added.

Continued downfall of the market, have brought the index, almost to its support zone, from which the trend may take a reversal any moment, said Zenith Investments.

The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 300 issues traded during the week, 184 declined, 94 advanced and 22 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor.

All the major sectors suffered from the market setback last week except telecommunications which gained 1.22 per cent. Food and allied  and NBFIs lost 2.22 per cent and 1.43 per cent respectively followed by fuel & power 1.19 per cent and pharmaceuticals 0.84 per cent.

A total of eleven listed companies - ICB Islamic Bank, Pubali Bank, BFIC, Uttara Bank, United Insurance, Islami Bank, IFIC Bank, Central Insurance, Eastland Insurance, City Bank and ONE Bank made corporate declaration during the week.

The market capitalisation of the DSE went down marginally by 0.73 per cent as it was Tk 2,856.13 billion on the opening day of the week and it stood at Tk 2,835.37 billion on closing session of the week.

The investors' attention was mostly focused on engineering and food & allied sectors, captured leading positions in turnover -- 15 per cent and 10 per cent respectively of the week's total value.

Square Pharma dominated the week's top turnover chart with shares worth Tk 621.99 million changing hands during the week followed by Bangladesh Shipping Corporation, Emerald Oil Industries, Lafarge Surma Cement and BSCCL.

Renwick Jajneswar was the week's top gainer, posting a rise of 34.41 per cent while GBB Power was the week's worst loser, slumping by 16.73 per cent following its price adjustment after record date.