Stocks suffered losses in the outgoing week that ended on Thursday as nervous investors dumped their holdings amid 'poor' dividend declarations.
Week on week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 89.10 points or 1.87 per cent to close at 4,682, after remaining flat in the week before.
Market analysts said ongoing depressed market outlook added further woes to the investors by poor dividends declaration by the listed companies.
Prolonged bearish trend frustrated general investors, said an analyst, adding that since beginning of the year, indices have been on the downward direction, with some periodic upward movement, which failed to sustain amid confidence crisis.
Lower-than-expected dividend declaration only exacerbated the crisis, he said.
A leading broker said ongoing volatile market trend coupled with growing concern about the telecom regulator with GP over unpaid dues dragged the market down.
The investors had been suffering a crisis of confidence for long and the recent fall of the index just added to their concern, he said.
He noted that the institutional investors were mostly in a hands-off position amid a liquidity crunch while small investors were not confident enough to inject fresh funds into the market.
A merchant banker said most of the investors remained worried about the recent volatility of the market and maintaining cautious stance while poor dividend declaration dented their confidence further.
The government recent market supportive steps apparently failed to boost investors' confidence to the market, he said.
The outgoing week saw five trading days as usual. Of them, only single positive session with 12 points increase amidst four negative sessions which ultimately weighted more as DSEX lost 89 points.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 47.35 points to finish at 1,627 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 20.91 points to close at Tk 1,075.
The weekly total turnover on the prime bourse stood at Tk 16.73 billion, up from Tk 15.46 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover averaged out at Tk 3.35 billion, up 8.30 per cent from the previous week's average of Tk 3.09 billion.
The EBL Securities said DSEX had not been able to sustain its positive trend without supportive measures from the ICB, banks and other institutional investors.
The stockbroker noted that disappointing earnings disclosures by most of the companies further darkened the overall market outlook.
International Leasing Securities said the pessimism spurred out due to the declaration of 'no dividend' and poor earnings declarations which failed to meet the investors' expectations.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also fell 1.43 per cent to Tk 3,559 billion on Thursday, from Tk 3,610 billion in the previous week.
Most of the major sectors showed negative performances, with engineering sector posted the highest loss of 4.05 per cent, followed by telecom with 3.02 per cent, power 2.80 per cent, non-bank financial institutions 2.49 per cent and banking 2.25 per cent.
Only food & allied sector gained 2.27 per cent.
Losers outnumbered the gainers, as out of 355 issues traded, 204 closed lower and 136 ended higher while 15 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor in the outgoing week.
National Tubes dominated the week's turnover chart, with 5.31 million shares worth Tk 746 million changing hands during the week.
The week's other turnover leaders were Sonar Bangla Insurance, Stylercraft, Standard Ceramic and Monno Ceramic.
Standard Ceramic was the week's best performer, posting a gain of 39.28 per cent while the Intech was the worst loser, shedding 42.62 per cent following its 'no' divided declaration.
The port city's bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also ended lower, with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - losing 309 points to settle at 14,221 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX - shedding 186 points to finish the week at 8,646.
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