Stocks witnessed a sharp decline last week that ended Thursday, extending the losing spell for the second week in a row, as worried investors were on selling frenzy, especially on large-cap stocks.
Market insiders said the market passed a shaky week amid lack of market triggers, hefty sell-off on large-cap issues and possible hit to the economy after the central bank's foreign exchange reserves scam.
"The investors appeared to be evaluating the overall economic condition and earnings declaration by the listed companies, while selling frenzy on large caps dragged down the benchmark index to 10-month low," said a leading stockbroker.
The large-cap stocks like BATBC, Titas Gas, Square Pharma, United Power, Lafarge Surma Cement, ICB and GP lost 4.9 per cent, 4.1 per cent, 3.7 per cent, 3.5 per cent, 3.3 per cent, 2.4 per cent and 1.0 per cent respectively.
The week featured five trading sessions as usual. Of them, one session managed to close positive zone, while four sessions saw sharp decline.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 75.79 points or 1.70 per cent to settle at 10 months lowest level at 4,370.50 points, since May 18 last year.
The two other indices also fell sharply. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, plunged 37.85 points or 2.24 per cent to finish at 1,655.46. The DSE Shariah Index fell 20.74 points or 1.92 per cent to close at 1,059.71.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also saw sharp fall with its Selective Categories Index, CSCX, slumping 140.95 points or 1.69 per cent to settle at 8,182.11 points.
The total turnover of the week stood at Tk 18.38 billion, which was 21.74 per cent higher than the previous week's Tk 15.10 billion, as last week saw five trading sessions instead of previous week's four.
However, the daily turnover averaged Tk 3.68 billion, which was 2.61 per cent lower than the previous week's average of Tk 3.78 billion.
Overall activities remained confined on, pharma, textiles and engineering sectors, where they captured 21 per cent, 16 per cent and 14 per cent respectively of the week's total turnover.
"Prolonged bearish vibe in the market kept the investors worried, which prompted them to go for sell-offs with a view to avoiding further losses on their portfolio holding," said International Leasing Securities, a stockbroker, in its weekly analysis.
LankaBangla Securities, a stockbroker, said, "The downward trend of the previous week continued as well as the index declined by roughly 1.70 per cent and the index closed at 4,370, which is a major support zone of the market".
"Decline of prices of large-cap shares is one of the reasons of decline in the broad index," said the stockbroker.
"The large-cap and mid-cap stocks took a beating, offsetting gains in small-cap stocks to close the market for the second straight week," said IDLC Investments, a merchant bank, in an analysis.
Sheltech Brokerage said, the market faced a heavy sell-off in large-cap stocks which drove the market down and DSEX mostly remained negative amid lack of confidence among the investors.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 326 issues traded, 221 closed lower, 80 higher and 25 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor during the week.
Seven listed companies - Trust Bank, Global Insurance, Al-Arafa Islami Bank, Union Capital, Prime Bank, Uttara Bank and Takaful Insurance recommended dividend last week.
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The market capitalisation of the DSE also went down by 1.24 per cent as it was Tk 3,079.84 billion on the opening day of the week and it stood at Tk 3,041.72 billion on the closing day of the week.
Keya Cosmetics dominated the week's turnover chart last week with 62.77 million shares worth Tk 941 million changing hands closely followed by Bangladesh Steel Re-rolling Mills Tk 639 million, Square Pharma Tk 603 million, Emerald Oil Tk 546 million and AFC Argo Biotech Tk 538 million.
Keya Cosmetics was the week's best performer for the second straight week, posting a gain of 17.29 per cent, while ONE Bank was the week's worst loser, plunging by 21.52 per cent following its price adjustment after record date.
A new issue -- Dragon Sweater and Spinning made trading debut Wednesday. The new comer's share price appreciated 88 per cent to close at Tk 18.8 on the debut day.
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