Bearish mood gripped the stock market for the third consecutive week as deepening political unrest has persistently hit investor sentiment.
The market witnessed lower volume of trade throughout the past week that ended Thursday, as even some good corporate earnings failed to generate buying spree.
In the past week, the benchmark index DSEX ended at 4,724, shedding 74 points or 1.8%, which is lowest in more than four months.
The comprising blue chips DS30 index moved down 31 points or 1.8% to 1,747. The DSE Shariah Index, DSES, was down over 20 points or 1.9% to 1,115. The Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Categories Index, CSCX, lost almost 189 points or over 2% to settle at 8,736.
There is no sign of political reconciliation yet, leading investors to hold back investment, said an analyst. “Unless political dust is not settled, no positive news like good corporate earnings will buoy up investor mood.”
Boiling political situation faced by the country since early this month has forced investors to remain inactive, pushing down the daily turnover in the past week averaged Tk217 crore, registering a drop of nearly 16% over the previous week’s average of Tk257 crore.
The turnover figure was very poor compared to the market depth. Investors’ attention was mostly focused on textiles and power sectors, accounting for more than 30% together of the week’s total turnover value. “Amid worsening political condition and continuous blockade, market lacked any motivation to stay optimistic,” said IDLC Investments in its weekly market analysis. Consequently market entered the downtrend, which has continued for the last three weeks, it said.
It said as political stability was the prime concern for investors, expectation of the Monetary Policy Statement for the second half of FY 2015 announced on Thursday hardly cast any impact on the market.
Lanka Bangla Securities said market went farther down amid uncertain political situation. The market continues its bearish sentiment in the week amid countrywide political instability and lingering political unrest in the country, which suppressed investor’s confidence, it said.
“Bearish stance in the market made the investors cautious amid the quarterly earnings season.”
Almost all the sectors closed in red in the week except food and allied sector which gained 3.8%, driven by heavy weight BATBC that rose more than 10% during the week.
Telecommunication suffered most posting a loss of over 5%, followed by power 2.5%, cement 1.4%, pharmaceuticals 0.5%. Banks and non-banking financial institutions also closed marginally lower.
Newly listed C & A Textiles dominated the week’s top turnover chart with shares worth Tk78.2 crore changing hands, followed by Grameenphone, Lafarge Surma Cement, Alltex Industries and CVO Petrochemical.