Stocks extended the losing streak for a second straight week to Thursday as cautious investors continued dumping their holdings amid persistent macroeconomic worries.
The week saw five trading days as usual with the first three days losing 114.08 points while the last two sessions gained 16 points on bargain hunting.
DSEX, the core index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), ended the week 98.08 points or 1.53 per cent lower to settle at 6,327.
The DSEX eroded a total of 153 points in the past two consecutive weeks since the national budget was unveiled.
Market operators said the investors were not happy with the budgetary measures relating to the capital market while instability of exchange rates, rising inflation and upsurge in call money rate made them doubly worried.
The investors went on a selling spree amid the country's macroeconomic uncertainty fuelled by Russia-Ukraine war and global price instability, said a merchant banker, seeking anonymity.
"Investors' concerns loomed around the heated-up foreign exchange market, weakening of taka, pressure on current account balance, and the recent upsurge in call money rate," he said.
In such a situation, investors believed that the growing liquidity crisis in the banking system might impact the bourses adversely while the government's bank borrowing to meet the budget deficit is expected to exacerbate the liquidity crisis, he said.
"Many investors remained shaky amid the rising cost of living as inflation is rising fast while the soaring trend of Covid-19 patients made them cautious," he added.
Stocks continued losing streak as several unfavourable macroeconomic indicators like the rising inflation, currency devaluation, foreign sell-offs and flood in the north and northeast regions have kept investors shaky, said EBL Securities in its weekly market review.
Bearish sentiment fuelled heavy sell-off since investors were unnerved over the eight-year high inflation, said the stockbroker.
Two other DSE indices also ended lower -- the DSE 30 Index, comprising blue chips, lost 29.34 points to finish at 2,298 while the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) shed 20.33 points to close at 1,382.
The week's total turnover stood at Tk 38.22 billion on the prime bourse as against Tk 43 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover averaged out at Tk 7.64 billion, down 11.11 per cent from the previous week's average of Tk 8.60 billion.
The investors' activities were mainly focused on the miscellaneous sector, capturing 16.10 per cent of the week's total turnover, followed by banking (12.90 per cent) and textile (12 per cent).
Major sectors saw price erosion with general insurance suffering the highest loss of 4.0 per cent, followed by financial institutions (3.20 per cent), engineering (2.50 per cent), banking (1.50 per cent), food (1.20 per cent), pharma (1.0 per cent), telecom (0.80 per cent) and power (0.30 per cent).
Losers took a strong lead over the gainers, as out of 390 issues traded, 297 declined, 74 advanced and 19 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Newly-listed Meghna Insurance was the week's top gainer, posting a 60.10 per cent gain, while Apex Tannery was the worst loser, shedding 9.37 per cent.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower with the CSE All Share Price Index (CASPI) losing 280 points to settle at 18,618 and its Selective Categories Index (CSCX) shedding 169 points to close the week at 11,161.
Of the issues traded, 252 declined, 74 advanced and 14 issues remained unchanged on the CSE trading floor.
The port-city bourse traded 7.98 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover value of Tk 1.99 billion.
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