Stocks extended their losing streak for the third straight weeks that ended Wednesday as investors were fearful about volatility in the political arena.
"Fear of political instability in the coming days and lacklustre participation ahead of the year-end dragged the market down for third consecutive weeks," said a stock broker.
The week featured four trading sessions like previous week instead of five as the market was closed on Thursday on the occasion of Christmas Day. Of them, three sessions down while one session saw marginal gain.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) went down by 32.85 points or 0.68 per cent to close the week 19-session low at 4,823.57 points.
The two other indices also closed in the red. The DS30, comprising blue chips index lost 5.99 points or 0.33 per cent to close at 1,786.88 points. The DSE Shariah Index shed 6.14 points or 0.54 per cent to close at 1,138.69 points.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower with its Selective Categories Index-CSCX - lost 83.49 points or 0.91 per cent to close the week at 9,019.29 points.
Turnover suffered significantly throughout the week as the market saw lower number of participants. The total turnover amounted to Tk 8.99 billion against Tk 9.55 billion the week before.
The daily turnover for the week averaged Tk 2.24 billion, registering a decline of 5.85 per cent over the previous week's average of Tk 2.38 billion.
The investors' attention was mostly focused on pharma, engineering and power - the sectors that accounted for 14 per cent, 13 per cent and 11 per cent of the week's total turnover respectively.
"Market observed another week of bearish trading as political uncertainty looms over the country ahead of one of the political party's activity to trouble the government," said LankaBangla Securities, in its weekly analysis.
"Institutional inactivity ahead of year-end might be the reason for this lacklustre participation," said the stock broker.
IDLC Investments in an analysis said, "Ahead of year-end market remained weak, while investors were meticulously re-assessing market before fresh investments".
"Low turnover was caused by the adaptation of new trading software," said the merchant bank.
Uncertainty remained high in the political landscape as the main opposition declared some plans for demonstration in the new-year, the merchant bank added.
"The stock market endured a bearish week amidst the profit booking attitude and lack of confidence among the investors," said International Leasing Securities.
Market's unpredictability affected the investors' participation as the daily average turnover fell by 5.85 per cent compared to the preceding week, the International Leasing added.
Among the major sectors, telecommunication and cement performed well, gaining 2.54 per cent and 2.40 per cent respectively.
All the other sectors closed in red. Food and allied registered the highest loss of 1.68 per cent. NBFIs and Power retraced by 0.93 per cent and 0.98 per cent respectively. Pharmaceuticals and banks also lost also 0.64 per cent and 0.37 per cent respectively.
Losers outpaced gainers as out of 314 issues traded, 198 declined, 89 advanced and 27 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
One listed company-Eastern Cables-declared dividend last week. The engineering sector company recommended 10 per cent cash dividend for the year ended on June 30, 2014.
The market capitalisation of the DSE, however, went up slightly by 0.10 per cent as it was Tk 3,233.35 billion on the opening day of the week and it stood at Tk 3,236.65 billion on the closing day of the week.
Lafarge Surma Cement dominated the week's top turnover chart, with shares worth Tk 382.66 million changing hands followed by Square Pharma, Beximco Pharma, GP and Agni Systems.
Small-cap stocks dominated the week's gainer list with Exim Bank First Mutual Fund was the week's top gainer, posting a rise of 11.86 per cent while Jute Spinners was the week's worst loser, plunging by 14.45 per cent.
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