Stocks extended the losing streak for the fourth straight week that ended on Thursday as risk-averse investors continued their selling spree on large-cap stocks.
Market insiders said the ongoing pessimism coupled with fear of political unrest ahead of the upcoming national election, persuading them to sell-off their stocks.
Brokers and merchant bankers on Thursday also blamed fears over dreadful political uncertainty centering the upcoming parliamentary elections as the main reason behind the recent fall.
Leaders of the DSE Brokers Association (DBA), the Bangladesh Merchant Bankers Association, DSE and the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) held a meeting Thursday at Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) which was presided over by BSEC Chairman M Khairul Hossain.
The week featured five trading days as usual. Of them, three sessions fell sharply while two posted marginal gain.
Week-on-week, the DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 124 points or 2.27 per cent to settle at 5,342.
DSEX eroded nearly 258 points or 4.60 per cent in the past four straight weeks.
"Investors continued their selling binge due to political worries ahead of national election," commented EBL Securities.
The stockbroker noted that some of the companies' dividend declaration failed to meet investors' expectation and gloomy market outlook kept investors anxious prior to the national election.
Two other indices also closed lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 16.17 points to close at 1,884 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 25.49 points to end at 1,230.
Total turnover on DSE came down to Tk 28.49 billion which was Tk 38.83 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover averaged Tk 5.69 billion, registering a decline of 27 per cent over the previous week's average of Tk 7.76 billion.
Block trade contributed 3.70 per cent to the total weekly turnover, where stocks like GP, Simtex, Prime Bank, United Power and National Life Insurance dominated the block trade board.
The power sector dominated the week's turnover chart, grabbing 19 per cent of the week's total turnover. It was closly followed by the engineering sector with 18 per cent and textile 15 per cent.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also fell 1.0 per cent last week. It was Tk 3,898 billion on the opening day of the week. It came down to Tk 3,859 billion on Thursday, the last trading day of the week.
According to International Leasing Securities, the investors were mostly on selling spree, fearing further fall of stock prices amid ongoing pessimism along with the fear of political unrest ahead of the upcoming national election.
The stockbroker noted that some of the good news like, ADB's projection of growing Bangladesh economy at 7.50 per cent in FY 2019, soaring of bank's profit by 20 per cent in the first half of 2018, relaxed rule of ICB bond worth Tk 20 billion, failed to attract investors.
"This downward shift in the index is mainly driven by significant negative changes in the large-cap sectors like banking, financial institutions and engineering," commented LankaBangla Securities.
Among the major sectors, life insurance witnessed the highest correction of 7.74 per cent, followed by engineering with 4.81 per cent, financial institutions 4.45 per cent, banking 1.63 per cent and power 0.63 per cent.
Telecommunication posted the highest gain of 2.43 per cent, followed by food & allied with 0.79 per cent and pharmaceuticals 0.31 per cent.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 340 traded issues, 257 closed lower, 71 ended higher and 12 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
Khulna Power Company topped the week's turnover chart for the second straight week with 21.53 million shares worth Tk 2.53 billion changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were United Power with Tk 1.82 billion, IFAD Autos Tk 1.39 billion, Shasha Denims Tk 1.05 billion and Active Fine Chemicals Tk 1.05 billion.
Republic Insurance was the week's best performer, posting a gain of 38.38 per cent. Evince Textiles was the worst loser, as its price plunged 37.33 per cent last week following the news of 'no' dividend declaration.
The port city's bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also ended lower with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -losing 446 points to settle at 16,441.
The Selective Categories Index - CSCX - also plunged 269 points to close at 9,958.
