Stocks saw a massive fall this week, extending the losing streak for a fourth straight week as withdrawal of 'floor price' prompted jittery investors to dump mostly large-cap shares.
As a result, about Tk 119 billion has been wiped out from the market value of stocks on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) in a week.
Market operators said withdrawal of the floor price for the largest and second largest market-cap stocks coupled with downgrade of six more stocks to the 'Z' category expedited the ongoing market downturn.
The total market-cap of the DSE was Tk 7,607 billion on the opening day of the week, which came down to Tk 7,488 billion on Thursday, the last trading day of the week.
The market cap is calculated by multiplying the total number of a company's outstanding shares with the current market price of shares.
After the withdrawal of floor price last week, the price erosion of the large-cap stocks, particularly two largest stocks -- Grameenphone and BAT Bangladesh -- contributed significantly to the market drop.
GP shed Tk 44.70 billion from its market value while BAT Bangladesh lost Tk 35.53 billion.
As per a regulatory directive issued on February 6 this year, GP got rid of floor price restriction on March 3 and BAT on March 4, after remaining stuck at the floor for about 18 months.
After the 'floor price' removal, GP and BAT Bangladesh stocks saw massive selloffs as investors wanted to get rid of their holdings that remained stuck on the floor for a long period of time.
BAT Bangladesh alone accounted for more than 37-point fall in the DSE key index while GP contributed 17.6-points fall this week, according to EBL Securities.
Finally, the benchmark DSEX index of the prime bourse went down almost 142 points or 2.27 per cent to settle the week at 6,112.76. The DSEX lost almost 262 points in the past four straight weeks.
Top index draggers were BAT Bangladesh, GP, Beximco Pharma, Renata, Orion Pharma, Square Pharma and Brac Bank as they jointly accounted for half of the weekly index fall.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, which consists of blue-chip companies, plunged 32 points to 2,094 while the DSES index, which represents Shariah-based companies, fell 24 points to 1,336.
Stocks prolonged its losing streak as shaky investors continued to sell-off their holdings amid the prevailing uncertainty regarding the market momentum, said EBL Securities.
The total turnover stood at Tk 40.53 billion this week as against Tk 35.08 billion in the week before as this week saw regular five trading days as against previous week's four.
Accordingly, the average daily turnover stood at Tk 8.10 billion, which was 8 per cent lower than the previous week's average of Tk 8.77 billion.
Losers took a strong lead over the gainers, as out of 401 issues traded, 320 saw price erosion, 59 witnessed price appreciation and 22 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
The pharmaceutical sector kept its dominance on the turnover chart, capturing more than 17 cent of the week's total turnover, followed by textile (13 per cent) and engineering (12.7 per cent).
All sectors saw price erosion with the food & allied sector suffering the most, losing 7.7 per cent, followed by non-bank financial institutions, life insurance, telecom, cement and engineering.
Low-cap stocks dominated the weekly turnover list with Fu-Wang Ceramic becoming the most traded shares, with shares worth Tk 2.09 billion changing hands, followed by Central Pharmaceuticals, Monno Fabrics, Aftab Automobiles and Fortune Shoes.
Sunlife Insurance was the week’s top gainer, posting 18.02 per cent rise while Central Pharma was the worst loser, shedding 20 per cent.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange also ended lower with its All Shares Price Index (CASPI) losing 378 points to 17,550 and the Selective Categories Index (CSCX) shedding 209 points to 10,535.
Of the issues traded, 225 declined, 81 advanced and 25 others remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 26.94 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover value of Tk 812 million.
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