Bearish sentiment hit the stock markets for the fourth consecutive week due to fear of brewing political chaos after Eid-ul-Azha, the second largest religious festival for Muslim community.
The past week that ended Thursday saw sales pressure ahead of the nine-day long closure on account of Eid, Durga Puja – the largest religious festival for Hindu community and weekends. Some investors have en-cashed for Eid expenditure.
During the week, the benchmark DSEX dropped 104 points or 2.7% to close at 3,843. The DS30 Index comprising blue chips lost 55 points or 3.8% to 1,387.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Category Index fell 227 points or nearly 3% to 7,494.
Brokers said fear of fresh turmoil in political frontier and investors’ preference for naturalising short-term return ahead of Eid-ul-Azha streamlined the week’s market sentiment.
The daily average turnover value at DSE came down to Tk2.4bn, a decline of 14.8% over the previous week’s average value of Tk2.8bn.
“The market remained highly attuned to the latest news coming from political arena and trade was somewhat erratic last week," said Lanka Bangla Securities in its weekly market analysis.
From the economic perspective, it said, the current period largely played out more than expected as exports showed comforting growth of 21.3% in first quarter of the current fiscal year.
“Dragged by cashing out ahead of long closure for Eid-ul-Azha amid much more sluggish participation streamlined this week's market sentiment,” said IDLC Investments.
It said consistent positioning of index below psychological level of 4,000 points in line with fear of further decline fuelled the week’s decaying vibe and forced investors' mood turning into a selling spree.
“Market continues to take battering as total turnover volume dips further with both the indices closed in a negative territory as the market fails to accommodate consolidation,” said Zenith Investments.
Throughout the week, investors followed previous two weeks’ trend and positioned mostly in textile and pharmaceutical sectors, accounted for 20.3% and 14.6% of market turnover respectively.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 293 issues traded during the week, 249 declined, 38 advanced and 6 remained unchanged on the prime bourse.
Delta Life Insurance became the week's top turnover leader with shares worth Tk507m changing hands followed by Argon Denim, Square Pharmaceuticals, Envoy Textile and Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd.
