Stock market saw modest selloffs in the past week, as cautious investors preferred staying on the sidelines on the eve of new budget.
Thursday afternoon, the last day of the trading, Finance Minister AMA Muhith proposed the budget for the next fiscal year beginning next month.
After modest rally in the previous week, the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) benchmark index, DSEX, settled at 4,396, shedding 34 points or 0.8%.
The comprising blue chips DS30 index, however, gained nearly 13 points or 0.9% to close at 1,623.
The DSE Shariah Index, DSES, rose 15 points or 2% to 1,008.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, lost 135 points or 1.6% to close the week at 8,334.
Trading activities, however, improved a bit but still remained poor. The average daily turnover for the week stood at Tk406 crore, registering an increase of over 55% over the previous week.
“Mixed budget expectation and growing worries over government’s strong position on bringing down the banks’ capital market exposure pulled the index down for four consecutive sessions,” said Lanka Bangla Securities in its weekly market analysis.
Market lost the momentum of the previous week, but average daily turnover was over 55% up from previous week, showing higher participation from investors, it said.
Cement and some engineering stocks moved up with expectation of allocation of fund for Padma Bridge in the budget.
IDLC Investments said market was slow after recent early-year rally, particularly at higher valuation multiples as budgetary expectations were only enough to create little buzz across the bourse. Large cap stocks dominated the turnover list. Besides, directional movement was absent during the week.
“As the week ended, investors were in selloff mode to be in safe territory,” said IDLC.
As the deposit rates of the banks and NBFIs were coming down, it has much expected that the investable fund may flow to capital market investment on a risk-adjusted basis, it said.
Losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 303 issues traded during the week, 229 declined, 66 advanced and eight remained unchanged.
The major sectors saw mixed performance in the week.
Cement, telecommunication and engineering performed better with a rise of over 8%, 7% and 5% respectively. Pharmaceuticals advanced marginally.
NBFIs, food and allied suffered heavily with losing almost 5% each. Banks and fuel and power also ended in red losing more than 4% and 1%.
Grameenphone dominated the week’s top turnover chart with shares worth Tk18 crore changing hands ahead of its interim dividend declaration.
