Stocks extended the losing streak for the two straight weeks that ended on Thursday as cautious investors continued their selling binge on large-cap stocks.
Market insiders said investors booked profit, particularly on December year-ending stocks like bank, financial institutions and telecommunication, taking the market into the negative territory.
The week featured five trading days as usual. Of them, four sessions suffered losses while one posted marginal gain.
Week-on-week, the DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 73.63 points or 1.32 per cent to settle at 5,500.
"This downward shift in the index is mainly driven by significant negative changes in the large-cap sectors like banking, financial institutions and telecommunication," commented LankaBangla Securities.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 38.65 points to close at 1,919 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 7.29 points to end at 1,271.
According to International Leasing Securities, the market fell as investors kept their selling spree on December ending stocks throughout the week.
The stockbroker noted that selling of shares mostly from banking, financial institution and telecom sectors contributed to the fall in indices.
Turnover, another indicator of the market, however, soared to Tk 45.06 billion which was Tk 30.54 billion in the week before as last week saw five trading sessions instead of previous week's four.
The daily turnover averaged Tk 9.01 billion, registering an increase of 18 per cent over the previous week's average of Tk 7.63 billion.
"The average turnover of the week soared as dividend expectation of June-ending companies prompted investors to inject fresh fund in the market," said the International Leasing
Block trade contributed 0.80 per cent to the total weekly turnover, where stocks like Square Pharmaceuticals, United Power, BATBC and Grameenphone dominated the block trade board.
The engineering sector dominated the week's turnover chart, grabbing 22 per cent of the week's total turnover. It was followed by the power sector with 16 per cent and textile 15 per cent.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also fell 0.84 per cent last week. It was Tk 3,963 billion on the opening day of the week. It fell to Tk 3,930 billion on Thursday, the last trading day of the week.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 340 traded issues, 223 closed lower, 107 ended higher and 10 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
Active Fine Chemicals topped the week's turnover chart with 81.30 million shares worth Tk 3.67 billion changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were Khulna Power Company with Tk 3.15 billion, BBS Cables Tk 1.92 billion, IFAD Autos Tk 1.58 billion and United Power Tk 1.18 billion.
National Life Insurance was the week's best performer, posting a gain of 48.40 per cent. National Housing Finance was the worst loser, as its price plunged 16.73 per cent last week.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also ended lower with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -losing 203 points to settle at 16,999.
The Selective Categories Index - CSCX - also plunged 123 points to close at 10,303 points.
A new issue - VFS Thread Dyeing-made its share trading debut last week. The new comer's share price jumped 207 per cent in the opening day to reach at Tk 30.70 from its issue price of Tk 10 each.
