The capital market passed a flat week that ended Thursday as investors mostly rebalanced their portfolio after quarterly earnings declaration.
Analysts said the market finished almost flat as a section of investors booked profit on large-cap telecom issues while some were busy rebalancing their portfolios after quarterly earnings declarations.
"The retail investors went for booking profits, especially on telecommunication, pharmaceuticals and engineering issues, which triggered a selling pressure in the market," said a leading broker.
The telecom sector witnessed the highest correction of 6.46 per cent as the sector heavyweight Grameenphone's share price plunged Tk 25.60 each to close at Tk 363.80.
The week featured five trading sessions as usual. Of them, first two sessions ended lower while last three closed marginally higher.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 7.21 points or 0.13 per cent to settle at 5,407.
According to International Leasing Securities, the market passed a flat week as investors were mostly rebalancing their portfolio after observing the half-yearly earnings and the impact of the monetary policy on the market.
The stockbroker noted that though the market opened the week amid students' road safety protests, the prime index recovered in the later part of the week as students' protest eased and eventually closed in the flat.
However, two other indices ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 5.90 points to finish at 1,893 and the DSE Shariah index lost 16 points to end at 1,245.
Turnover, another indicator of the market, remained almost same as the total turnover on the DSE amounted to Tk 34.37 billion which was Tk 34.29 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover averaged Tk 6.87 billion, which was 0.25 per cent higher than the previous week's average of Tk 6.85 billion.
The textile sector dominated the week's turnover chart, capturing 29 per cent of the week's total turnover, followed by engineering with 18 per cent and pharmaceuticals 10 per cent.
EBL Securities said, the investors opted for fresh investments in banking and financial institutions issues in response to the news that banks would cut interest rate to single-digit from August 9.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also fell 0.59 per cent as it was Tk 3,868 billion on opening day of the week while it rose to Tk 3,845 billion on Thursday.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 341 traded issues, 211 closed lower, 103 ended higher and 26 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
BBS Cables was the week's most traded stock with 14.81 million shares worth Tk 1.64 billion changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were AB Bank with Tk 1.20 billion, United Power Tk 1.09 billion, Saiham Textile Tk 809 million and Simtex Industries Tk 724 million.
Provati Insurance was the week's best performer, posting a gain of 19.57 per cent while Savar Refractories was the worst loser, losing 30.60 per cent.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended slightly higher with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -advancing 38 points to settle at 16,630.
The Selective Categories Index - CSCX - also gained 25 points to close at 10,068.
A new issue - Aman Cotton Fibrous made its share trading debut on Monday. Share price of the new issue jumped 86 per cent to close at Tk 74.30 each on debut trading day.
