Stocks continued to decline, extending their losing streak for a third straight week that ended on Thursday, as investors keep selling shares of major sectors.
The week featured five trading days as usual. The market closed lower in the first three sessions while the last two sessions saw marginal gain.
Week on week, the DSEX, the prime index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled 61.63 points or 1.06 per cent lower at 5,750.
Market analysts said shaky investors hurried to book profits from stocks which saw sharp gains in recent upsurge while others remained busy realigning their portfolios ahead of earnings and dividend declarations.
Grameenphone, the largest market-cap company, took a big hit, dipping 3.85 per cent to close at Tk 389.90 on Thursday, as the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) declared GP a significant market power (SMP) operator considering its market share of above 40 per cent.
The SMP is a regulation that imposes restrictions on an operator once it corners 40 per cent of the subscribers, revenues and spectrum.
A leading broker said the news prompted investors to sell their holdings in GP as they feared that such a move might lead to imposition of additional charges on GP alongside regular taxes.
The International Leasing Securities said the initiative prompted sell pressure on telecoms, power, banking, financial institutions, pharma and food sectors' stocks that contributed to the fall in indices.
The power sector lost 3.17 per cent, followed by banking (2.38 per cent), non-bank financial institutions (1.87 per cent), pharmaceuticals (0.73 per cent) and food (0.l5 per cent).
In a major development last week, the board of directors of the DSE decided to delist four junk companies and send them to the over-the-counter market for their failure to pay dividends in the last five or more years.
The four companies are Imam Button Industries, Savar Refractories, Meghna Pet Industries and Meghna Condensed Milk Industries.
The DSE board also formed a committee to see whether ACI -- an 'A' category company -- misled its investors.
An investor has alleged that the business conglomerate has been affected for the last 10 years due to losses incurred by one of its subsidiaries, said a DSE director.
The premier bourse took the decisions in a board meeting on Tuesday and forwarded it to the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission for approval.
Two other indices of DSE also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 27 points to finish at 1999 points and the DSE Shariah Index lost 12 points to close at 1,311.
The total turnover stood at Tk 40.78 billion last week, down from Tk 41.19 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover averaged out at Tk 8.15 billion, registering a decline of 1.01 per cent, compared to the previous week's daily average of Tk 8.23 billion.
Block trade contributed 2.80 per cent to the total weekly turnover, with stocks like Square Pharmaceuticals, Mutual Trust Bank, FAS Finance, Singer BD, and IBN Sina dominating the block trade board.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also fell 1.29 per cent to Tk 4,156 billion, from Tk 4,211 billion in the week before.
Losers outnumbered the gainers, as out of 349 issues traded, 178 closed lower, 155 ended higher and 16 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
Fortune Shoes dominated the turnover chart, with 65.72 million shares worth Tk 2.41 billion changing hands. The company accounted for 5.91 per cent of the week's total turnover.
The other turnover leaders were United Power, Monno Ceramic, Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company and Legacy Footwear.
The general insurance companies performed well last week, as the sector gained 7.0 per cent. Global Insurance was the week's best performer, climbing 32.24 per cent, while Meghna Condensed Milk was the biggest loser, shedding 20.50 per cent.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also ended lower, with its CSE All Share Price Index -- CASPI -- dropping 179 points or 1.0 per cent to settle at 17,602 and the Selective Categories Index -- CSCX --shedding 108 points or 1.0 per cent to finish at 10,650.
