Dhaka stocks extended the losing streak for a second week, with the benchmark index witnessing a free fall on the last trading day of the outgoing week as the Russian invasion of Ukraine prompted nervous investors to offload their shares so as to avoid further losses.
During this week, most listed securities, especially large-cap companies, saw price corrections, which drove the DSEX, the benchmark index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), down to 6839.44 points.
Week on week, the DSEX dropped 151.92 points or 2.17 per cent to settle at 6839.44 on Thursday. The DSEX had closed at 6,991 in the previous week.
This week, there were four trading days instead of usual five sessions as February 21 was a public holiday on the occasion of the International Mother Language Day.
Of the four trading sessions, three sessions saw the prime index decline and one session closed marginally higher. The major loss in the broad index was observed on Thursday when the DSEX lost 1.57 per cent or 109.23 points.
Amid the bearish trend, the prospect of settlement of negative equities and the Ukraine crisis left negative impacts on the turnover and broad index of the prime bourse, according to the market operators.
The DSE posted a total turnover of Tk 39.88 billion this week, down 33.17 per cent from the turnover of the previous week.
The daily average turnover stood at Tk 9.96 billion, down 16.46 per cent from the previous week.
Two other indices also fell -- the shariah-based DSES index declined 2.15 per cent or 32.42 points to close at 1508.14 points while the blue-chip DS30 index dropped 2.29 per cent or 58.87 points to close at 2573.85 points on Thursday.
"The equity indices of the Dhaka bourse observed a chaotic week. Investors' panic-driven behaviour was observed in the last trading session, which saw a large correction in the broad index," said EBL Securities in its analysis.
Of 387 issues traded on the DSE, some 73 advanced, 297 declined and 17 remained unchanged on the premier bourse.
The market capitalisation on the DSE declined 1.89 per cent to close at Tk 5.50 trillion on Thursday.
"The stock market witnessed a massive fall during the last week due to the impacts of some issues, including the Ukraine-Russia crisis." said International Leasing Securities.
The investors refrained from making any fresh investments and adopted a wait-and-see approach, it added.
Of the major sectors which saw correction, the banking sector declined 2.0 per cent, engineering 1.2 per cent, fuel & power 1.9 per cent, general insurance 4.6 per cent, life insurance 3.6 per cent, pharmaceuticals & chemicals 1.5 per cent, and telecommunications 1.3 per cent.
Investors' participation was concentrated mostly on miscellaneous sector which grabbed 13.20 per cent of the weekly market turnover, followed by pharmaceuticals & chemicals (12.6 per cent), tannery (11.7 per cent), financial institutions (10.7 per cent), and textiles (9.3 per cent).
Beximco topped the weekly turnover chart with a value of Tk 2.95 billion followed by Fortune Shoes (Tk 2.52 billion), Orion Pharma (Tk 1.32 billion), Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (Tk 964.09 million), and National Life Insurance Company (Tk 624.24 million).
Price-wise, Dragon Sweater was the top weekly gainer, registering a rise of 22.84 per cent to close at Tk 19.90 each on Thursday.
Genex Infosys was the biggest loser, shedding 13.44 per cent to close at Tk 137.80 each on Thursday.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower, with the CSE All Share Price Index (CASPI) plunging 468 points to settle at 19,991.55 on Thursday, the last trading day of the week.
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