Snapping a three-week winning streak, the stock market slipped into the red in the outgoing week as cautious investors rushed to realise short-term gains.
Amid lack of clear market direction, the benchmark equities index witnessed selling pressure and edged lower primarily due to price fall in large-cap and trendy stocks in particular, market operators said.
Fu-Wang Food, Emerald Oil Industries, Square Pharma, LafargeHolcim and Olympic Industries mostly dragged down the index as they jointly accounted for more than 10-point fall in the key index.
The soaring interest rate and increasing inflation have dampened the investor sentiment, said Md Shakil Rizvi, managing director of Shakil Rizvi Stock Limited.
There is a possibility to increase the interest rate further, he said, adding that if the interest rate rises, it will badly affect the stock market investment, he added.
However, he said, the recent surge in the index also prompted the risk-averse investors to opt for short-term profit.
This week featured five trading days. Of them, two sessions posted gains while three others suffered losses amid profit-booking tendency among the cautious investors.
DSEX, the broad index of Dhaka Stocks Exchange (DSE), finally settled the week 5.05 points or 0.08 per cent lower at 6,302.03, after gaining more than 52 points in the past three consecutive weeks.
The market has been bearish since the floor price was imposed more than a year ago, with some periodic upward movements that failed to sustain amid a confidence crisis.
Analysts say the prevailing floor price discourages investors, including the institutional ones, to put money in stocks.
Two other indices also ended in the red. The DS30 Index, which consists of blue-chip companies, shed 2.53 points to close at 2,134 and the DSES index, which represents Shariah-based companies, fell 8.61 points to 1,360.
The smart investors continued their chase after general insurance shares in anticipation of short-term gains, resulting in nine out of top ten weekly gainers being insurers.
The investors were mostly active in general insurance, capturing 36 per cent of the week's total turnover, and the sector market-cap soared 7.90 per cent.
Turnover, the crucial indicator of the market, stood at Tk 28.64 billion in total, up from Tk 26.23 billion in the week before, as this week saw five trading instead of previous week's four.
The average daily turnover stood at Tk 5.73 billion in the outgoing week, which was 13 per cent lower than the previous week's average of Tk 6.56 billion.
The majority of the traded issues remained stuck at floor price as 369 issues traded, 204 remained unchanged, 99 declined and 66 advanced on the DSE trading floor.
Small-cap Fu-Wang Food, which saw 17.70 per cent price fall, kept its dominance in the weekly turnover charts with shares worth Tk 2.10 billion changing hands.
Crystal Insurance was the week's top gainer, rising 36.97 per cent while Legacy Footwear was the worst loser, shedding 21.44 per cent after its unusual price hike in recent weeks.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower, with the CSE All Share Price Index (CASPI) losing 52 points to settle at 18,626 while the Selective Categories Index (CSCX) fell 15 points to 11,136.
Of the issues traded, 75 declined, 63 advanced and 139 issues remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city's bourse traded 12.52 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover value worth Tk 597 million.
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