Stocks plummeted in the outgoing week to Thursday, with jittery investors selling off their shares to skirt further losses amid persistent volatility on the market.
Out of the five trading days this week, four sessions suffered losses amid sluggish turnover, as trading hours have been reduced by 30 minutes during the Holy Ramadan.
Week on week, the prime DSEX index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), slid 116.60 points or 1.73 per cent to settle at 6,641, after gaining 4.95 points in the week before.
The week's total turnover also dropped to Tk 30.39 billion on the prime bourse, as against Tk 46.83 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover averaged out at Tk 6.07 billion, down 35 per cent from the previous week's average of Tk 9.37 billion.
Market operators said looming uncertainty over the global economy and the commodity market instability continued to dampen the investor sentiment.
The investors preferred to hold onto their cash fearing a further price hike of essentials amid the ongoing global economic turmoil and holy Ramadan, said a leading broker.
He noted that the recent rise of the call money rate indicates that the real economy is using much more money for paying bills due to the inflation, which slowed the fund flow into the capital market.
Although the stock market regulator has taken various initiatives to increase fund flow, nothing appeared to be working as investors lost confidence in the market.
"Due to the rising global inflation, the country's economy has started feeling the pinch as import expenditure increased significantly, which created an imbalance in the current account of balance and caused a shortfall of dollars in the financial market," said a merchant banker.
The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict has been worsening the situation, with the global supply chain being disrupted seriously, he said.
"Stocks plunged as the investors sold shares to prevent further losses amidst ongoing market volatility," the EBL Securities commented in its weekly market analysis.
The lower-circuit limit resulted in a sharp decline in buyers' interest in collecting stocks at the current market price, said the stockbroker.
"Shorter trading period in the Holy Ramadan and liquidity need for upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr have also exacerbated the market situation."
According to a weekly market review of International Leasing Securities, jittery investors converted their investments into cash amid the price hike of commodities during Ramadan and global economic turmoil.
Two other DSE indices also ended sharply lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, lost 22.41 points to finish at 2,451 and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) fell 14.51 points to close at 1,453.
Market capitalisation of the DSE also fell by 1.27 per cent to Tk 5,325 billion on Thursday, down from Tk 5,394 billion in the week before.
Major sectors suffered losses but the cement sector gained 2.60 per cent. General insurance sector witnessed the highest loss of 6.60 per cent, followed by food (1.90 per cent), power (1.90 per cent), telecoms (1.40 per cent), banking (1.20 per cent) and pharma (0.10 per cent).
Prices of more than 84 per cent traded issues fell on the prime bourse, as out of 385 issued traded, 324 declined, 51 advanced and 10 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Beximco was the most traded stock with shares worth Tk 1.97 billion changing hands, followed by IPDC Finance (Tk 1.56 billion), LafargeHolcim (Tk 1.37 billion), VFS Thread Dyeing (Tk 778 million), and GSP Finance (Tk 768 million).
The newly listed JMI Hospital Requisite Manufacturing was the week's top gainer, posting a 60.45 per cent gain, while Uttara Bank was the worst loser, shedding 13.24 per cent, following its price adjustment after record date during the week.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower, with the CSE All Share Price Index (CASPI) shedding 247 points to settle at 19,501 while its Selective Categories Index (CSCX) losing 147 points to close the week at 11,700.
Of the issues traded, 256 declined, 76 advanced, and 15 issues remained unchanged on the CSE trading floor.
The port-city bourse traded 31.49 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover value of Tk 866 million.
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