Stocks slipped into the red for the third week in a row that ended Thursday as investors were on massive sell-offs in the first two sessions of the week amid low confidence on the market.
Market insiders said hefty sell-off on large-cap stocks in the first two sessions failed to recover in the last three days gain, as a result market stayed in the red territory.
After hitting index in the eleven months' lowest level Monday, the market edged up in the last three sessions of the week, which analysts attributed to a 'technical' bounce back.
In later part of the week, investors became optimistic following a meeting of Dhaka bourse with top brokers, favourable macro-economic forecast of Asian Development Bank, coupled with attractive price range of sound issues, said an analyst.
ADB has kept its growth forecasts for Bangladesh unchanged at 6.7 per cent for the current fiscal year, though the country's main economic indicators are now better than a year.
The week featured five trading sessions as usual. Of them, first two sessions saw drastic fall while last three closed marginally higher.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 12.96 points or 0.30 per cent to settle at 4,370.50 points.
The two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 6.50 points or 0.39 per cent to finish at 1,648.95. The DSE Shariah Index dropped 7.57 points or 0.71 per cent to close at 1,052.14.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended marginally lower with its Selective Categories Index, CSCX, shedding 41.26 points or 0.50 per cent to finish at 8,140.85 points.
Trading activities also slumped as the total turnover for the week stood at Tk 16.77 billion, which was Tk 18.39 billion in the previous week.
The daily turnover averaged Tk 3.35 billion, registering a decline of 8.77 per cent over the previous week's average of Tk 3.68 billion.
Overall activities remained confined on pharmaceuticals, engineering and textile sectors, where they captured 19 per cent, 16 per cent and 12 per cent respectively of the week's total turnover.
IDLC Investments, a merchant bank, said, "Due to strong selling pressure, small and mid-cap issues faced the highest correction till the second session of the week. However, in the meantime bargain hunters became active in the market identifying lucratively priced issues".
Thus, market rebounded on the third session and kept the positive momentum till the last session of the week, recovering the losses early in the week to quite some extent, said the merchant bank.
"Throughout the week, small-cap stocks disappointed the investors the most, while micro-cap stocks yielded the highest return," said the merchant bank.
International Leasing Securities, a stockbroker, said, "The investors turned optimistic following a meeting of Dhaka bourse with the top brokers, where they demanded immediate extension of banks' capital market exposure deadline by two more years, considering the present market situation".
Royal Capital, a stockbroker, said, the market risk had beaten the market return which evidenced poor performance throughout the week.
"Some of the investors were in sale mood and got panicked regarding the market in the first two sessions of the week. Return to risk ratio tracked with poor performance per unit of risk level," said the stockbroker.
Among the major sectors, food and allied posted 4.8 per cent return as BATBC recovered 6.1 per cent from last week's correction.
Telecommunication witnessed the highest loss of 4.0 per cent as GP's price dropped by 4.1 per cent. Cement was the second highest loser of the week which lost 2.6 per cent, riding on correction in Heidelberg Cement faced 2.3 per cent erosion.
The losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 326 issues traded, 166 closed lower, 130 ended higher and 30 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor during the week.
Seven listed companies - NCC Bank, Uttara Finance, KDS Accessories, Standard Bank, Apex Footwear, United Insurance and Phoenix Insurance-- recommended dividend last week.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also went down by 0.17 per cent as it was Tk 3,041.72 billion on the opening day of the week and it stood at Tk 3,036.42 billion on closing day of the week.
Aman Feed, a fisheries and livestock feed producer, dominated the turnover chart last week with 7.86 million shares worth Tk 626 million changing hands, closely followed by Bangladesh Steel Re-rolling Mills Tk 620 million, Emerald Oil Tk 609 million and Keya Cosmetics Tk 561 million.
The IBN Sina was the week's best performer, posting a gain of 123.15 per cent, while Emerald Oil was the week's worst loser, plunging by 13.59 per cent.
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