Stocks witnessed yet another bearish week, extending the losing streak for the third straight week, as worried investors continued their selling binge to ward off further losses.
The benchmark index of the major bourse also tumbled below the 'psychological' threshold of 5,000-mark during the week, hitting a 32-month low amid mounting selling pressure.
Week on week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), dropped 79.13 points or 1.58 per cent to close at 4934.
The DSEX has lost a cumulative 303 points in the past three weeks and the market-cap lost Tk 194 billion during the period.
Market analysts said confidence crisis, the government move to divert "idle funds" of state entities, telecoms regulator's row with GP and soaring non-performing loans continued to haunt the investor sentiment.
The growing spat with GP has taken a new turn after the mobile operator announced its legal battle against the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission over an audit claim, said a leading broker.
The financial sector is not performing well, as investors are suffering from confidence crisis due to soaring non-performing loans, which hit hard the bank stocks that lost 1.73 per cent in the outgoing week, he said.
Falling foreign portfolio investment in the country's capital market also dented local investors' confidence, he added.
Mostaque Ahmed Sadeque, former president of DSE Brokers Association, said investors do not feel confident enough to inject fresh funds into stocks amid a dismal market outlook.
The government's move to use "idle funds" of state-owned entities for development work also eroded investor confidence, he added.
He also noted that it [use of idle money] will intensify the ongoing liquidity crunch in the banking sector.
The outgoing week saw four trading days instead of five as the market remained closed on Tuesday due to holy Ashura. Two sessions fell sharply while two others saw marginal gain.
Two other equities indices also closed lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, shed 21.14 points to finish at 1,737 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 10.28 points to close at Tk 1,156.
The weekly turnover on the prime bourse stood at Tk 16.86 billion, down from Tk 19.73 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover averaged out at Tk 4.21 billion, up 6.81 per cent from the previous week's average of Tk 3.94 billion.
International Leasing Securities said continued fall in share prices led the investors to liquidate their holdings to avoid further losses which brought down the DSEX to below 'psychological' threshold of 5,000-mark.
The stockbroker noted that fall of large-cap stocks like British American Tobacco, Square Pharmaceuticals, United Power, and City Bank played a major role in the bearish trend.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also fell 1.37 per cent to Tk 3,694 billion on Thursday, from Tk 3,745 billion in the previous week.
Most of the major sectors showed negative performances, with power sector losing the highest of 5.10 per cent, followed by food (3.01 per cent) banking (1.73 per cent) engineering (1.71 per cent), non-bank financial institutions (1.68 per cent) and pharma (0.10 per cent).
Losers outnumbered the gainers, as out of 355 issues traded, 276 closed lower and 66 higher while 13 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor in the outgoing week.
National Tubes dominated the week's turnover chart, with shares worth Tk 1.02 billion changing hands during the week.
National Tubes was also the week's best performer, posting a gain of 30.87 per cent while the United Power was the worst loser, shedding 117.39 per cent following its price adjustment after record date.
The port city's bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also ended lower, with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - losing 281 points to settle at 14,982 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX - shedding 171 points to finish the week at 9,095.
