Stocks backed into the red in outgoing week that ended on Thursday, after a single-week break, amid concern over the country's overall economy.
Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 60.10 points or 1.27 per cent to settle at 4,671, after adding 24.77 points in the week before.
Market analysts said recent market volatility coupled with concern over the country's economy, rising non-performing loan and liquidity crunch dented investors' confidence.
The investors are still suffering from confidence crisis as the market remained volatile over the last ten months, said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.
He noted that prolonged bearish trend in the market is still haunting the investors' sentiment while deterioration in a number of economic indicators like falling export earnings, poor tax revenue collection and soaring non-performing loan exacerbated the crisis.
The news that stock brokers have submitted a work plan for investment of Tk 100 billion funds, sought earlier from the government to support the country's ailing market, failed to boost the investor confidence, he added.
The outgoing week saw five trading days as usual. Of them three sessions closed lower while two ended marginally higher.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 41.89 points to finish at 1,605 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 26.32 points to close at Tk 1,055.
The weekly total turnover on the prime bourse stood at Tk 23.10 billion, slightly down from Tk 23.76 billion in the week before.
The daily turnover averaged out at Tk 4.62 billion, down 2.74 per cent from the previous week's average of Tk 4.75 billion.
International Leasing Securities said the worried investors opted to book quick-gain on sector-wise issues to avoid further loss, taking the key index below 4,700-mark again.
The stockbroker noted that the investors went on a selling frenzy following the newspaper reports exposing a further rise in defaulted loans in the banking sector.
EBL Securities said investors maintained a cautious stance and engaged in short-term profit booking selloffs throughout the week, fearing further fall.
The stockbroker said news of soaring non-performing loan and liquidity crunch made investors worried about the overall market outlook.
The investors exerted selling pressure on sector specific stocks, particularly from the telecom, engineering, power, pharma and food sectors.
The telecom sector witnessed the highest loss of 3.51 per cent, closely followed by engineering with 3.43 per cent, power 2.80 per cent, pharma 2.15 per cent, food 1.85 per cent and financial institutions 0.94 per cent.
Only banking sector gained 1.58 per cent during the week.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also fell 1.20 per cent to Tk 3,523 billion on Thursday, from Tk 3,567 billion in the previous week.
Losers outnumbered the gainers, as out of 355 issues traded, 194 closed lower and 140 ended higher while 21 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor in the outgoing week.
LafargeHolcim dominated the week's turnover chart, with 19.52 million shares worth Tk 752 million changing hands during the week.
The week's other turnover leaders were Sonar Bangla Insurance, Paramount Insurance, Fortune Shoes and SK Trims & Industries.
Paramount Insurance was the week's best performer, posting a gain of 38.40 per cent while the Stylecraft was the worst loser, shedding 56.23 per cent following its price adjustment during the week.
Four listed companies - Progressive Life Insurance, AFC Agro Biotech, Bangas and Active Fine Chemicals-- recommended dividend between 2.0 per cent and 12 per cent during the week.
The port city's bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also ended lower, with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - losing 189 points to settle at 14,203 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX - shedding 121 points to finish the week at 8,622.
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