The losing streak continued for the fourth straight weeks on the bourses that ended Thursday as worried investors continued their selling binge on large-cap issues.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 38 points or 0.85 per cent to settle at 4,418.
The DSEX has lost a cumulative 312 points in the past four straight weeks while it shed 1,532 points since January 24 of this year, when the index peaked at 5,950.
The market capitalisation also eroded Tk 485 billion in the four consecutive weeks while it wiped off Tk 815 billion in the past eleven months, the DSE data shows.
Market operators said investors are struggling with ongoing depressed market trend while gloomy macroeconomic outlook and foreign investors' pulling funds out of the market exacerbated the situation.
The financial sector remained volatile with liquidity crunch while soaring interest rate, huge non-performing loans and pressure on the exchange rate spilled over into the capital market, said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.
He said that falling private sector credit growth, declining export earnings, poor tax revenue collection and heavy government bank borrowing kept most of the investors at bay.
He noted that continuing erosion in stock prices also reduced investment ability of the institutional investors. So, they could not support the market.
The opportunist investors showed their buying interest in the last session of the week riding on the news that the finance minister will sit with DSE on January 2, 2020.
Two other indices also edged lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 4.52 points to finish at 1,508 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 2.58 points to close at 994.
The outgoing week saw four trading days instead of five as the market closed on Wednesday due to Christmas Day. Of them first three sessions closed lower while last one ended higher.
The weekly total turnover on the DSE fell to Tk 10.79 billion, down from Tk 11.18 billion in the week before as last week also saw four trading days like the week before.
The daily turnover averaged Tk 2.69 billion, down 3.56 per cent from the previous week's average of Tk 2.79 billion.
According to EBL Securities, most of the large-cap stock by capital lost points which dragged the market down.
International Leasing Securities said the investors were mostly nervous amid ongoing volatile market trend as persistent bearish trend forced them to go for selling offs.
The telecom sector suffered most, losing 2.24 per cent, closely followed by food with 2.2 per cent, banking 1.50 per cent, and financial institutions 0.90 per cent.
On the other hand, only power sector gained 2.30 per cent.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also fell 3.56 per cent to Tk 3,384 billion on Thursday, from Tk 3,396 billion in the previous week.
Losers outnumbered the gainers, as out of 356 issues traded, 229 closed lower and 90 ended higher while 37 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor in the outgoing week.
Khulna Power dominated the week's turnover chart with shares worth Tk 360 million changing hands during the week.
Anlimayarn Dyeing was the week's best performer, posting a gain of 18.13 per cent while the Aziz Pipe was the worst loser, losing 12.76 per cent.
The port city's bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also kept losing, with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - losing 67 points to settle at 13,464 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX - shedding 43 points to finish the week at 8,163.
Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 180 issues closed lower, 86 ended higher and 28 remained unchanged during the week
The port city bourse traded 21.04 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 668 million in turnover last week.
