Dhaka stocks slide for second week

Business Report :

For the second week in a row, stocks on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) closed down as the market continued to decline owing to strong selling pressure and little participation, which reflected investors’ cautious posture.

Investors continued to adopt a broad-based profit-taking approach while shifting towards a defensive stance in the absence of any strong positive catalyst to revive sentiment, said EBL Securities in its weekly market review.

The DSEX, the key index of the premier bourse, declined 73.9 points, or 1.3 percent, to close at 5,450.

Other indices also fell, with the DS30, which tracks blue-chip stocks, dropping 2 percent to 2,107, while the DSES, comprising Shariah-compliant companies, slipped 1.5 percent to 1,178, according to DSE data.

Turnover, a key indicator of investor activity, fell sharply to Tk 3,505.32 crore from Tk 5,748.31 crore in the previous week.

On a daily average, turnover stood at Tk 701 crore, down 39 percent week-on-week.
“Although selective scrips experienced strong buying pressure in anticipation of favourable earnings and dividend announcements, market activity was largely dictated by persistent selling pressure coupled with subdued participation, reflecting the cautious market positioning of investors,” EBL Securities said.

Sector-wise, investors were most active in pharmaceuticals, which accounted for 13.1 percent of weekly turnover, followed by engineering at 11.6 percent and banks at 10.9 percent.
Most sectors, however, posted negative returns, with the financial institutions sector suffering the steepest decline of 6.5 percent.

Market breadth was largely negative as 306 issues declined, 68 advanced, and 23 remained unchanged.

Among individual issues, Envoy Textiles was the top gainer, soaring 18.7 percent, while Prime Finance & Investment endured the sharpest fall, plunging 27.6 percent during the week.