Stocks posted a marginal fall last week that ended Thursday, after remaining upbeat in the previous week, as risk-averse investors opted for quick-profit on sector specific stocks.
Analysts said the market faced a mild correction as a section of investors booked short-term profit on stocks that saw significant gain in the week before, while some were busy in rebalancing portfolio amid earnings expectation.
Among the large-cap stocks, Titas Gas, Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company, Islami Bank, BATBC and Square Pharmaceuticals faced correction of 9.75 per cent, 6.22 per cent, 6.20 per cent, 1.20 per cent and 0.20 per cent respectively last week.
The week witnessed five trading sessions as usual. Of them, two sessions saw correction, while three posted marginal gain within a thin band.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 3.21 points or 0.07 per cet to finish the week at 4,574.36.
LankaBangla Securities, a stockbroker, said, "Benchmark index witnessed volatility and closed the week almost flat. Investors seem to be consolidating at this level".
The stockbroker noted that earning declaration remained the major trigger in the market, thus market saw significant shift in stock positioning almost throughout the week.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, saw sharp fall, plunging by 14.18 points or 0.79 per cent to settle at 1,781.02. However, the DSE Shariah Index saw a fractional gain of 0.44 point or 0.04 per cent to end at 1,123.47 points.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also finished slightly lower with its Selective Categories Index, CSCX, falling 3.18 points or 0.04 per cent to finish at 8,562.09.
However, the investors were active on both sides of trading fence making the week's total turnover to Tk 23.18 billion against Tk 22.16 billion in the week before. The block trade contributed 3.70 per cent to the week's total turnover value.
The daily turnover averaged Tk 4.64 billion, registering an increase of 4.60 per cent over the previous week's average of Tk 4.43 billion.
Overall activities remained confined on engineering, fuel and power and pharmaceuticals, where they captured 19 per cent, 15 per cent and 14 per cent respectively of the week's total turnover.
City Bank Capital, a merchant bank, said, "As investors were cautious for investing fresh funds and continued to take profit from recent rallied stocks, the large-cap stocks became slow over the week".
"Investors decided to book quick-gain over the recent price hike in shares, which triggered the market to close in negative territory," said International Leasing Securities, a stockbroker, in an analysis.
Sheltech Brokerage said, the prime index remained volatile on the first three sessions of the week as Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) rejected to re-fix the distribution charge on Titas Gas.
The gainers took a modest lead over the losers as out of 328 issues traded, 169 closed higher, 121 closed lower and 38 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor last the week.
One listed company, Bangladesh Thai Aluminium and 13 mutual funds declared dividends last week.
The total market capitalisation of the DSE fell 0.06 per cent last week as it was Tk 3,233.02 billion on the opening day of the week and it came down to Tk 3,230.94 billion on closing day of the week.
MJL Bangladesh dominated the week's turnover chart with some 6.78 million shares worth Tk 737 million changing hands, followed by Titas Gas Tk 682 million, Bangladesh Steel Re-rolling Mills Tk 660 million, Delta Brac Housing Finance Corporation Tk 610 million and BSRM Steels Tk 605 million.
Ambee Pharmaceuticals was the week's best performer, posting a gain of 28.83 per cent, while Exim Bank First Mutual Fund was the worst loser, slumping by 20.88 per cent.
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