Cautious investors offload shares to end week in red

Stocks declined for the second week in a row as investors sold off shares and mutual fund units to take profit and avert further loss.

DSEX, the benchmark general index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, closed the week at 4,984.46 points, falling 40.64 points or 0.81 percent.

DSES, the shariah index of the Dhaka bourse, dropped 5.76 points or 0.49 percent, to close at 1,174.55 points.

"Despite a clear downward direction, large positive swings were observed, which could not fade the bearish trend," said IDLC Investments.

Micro and mini cap stocks performed relatively better, while large cap stocks slipped, the investment bank said.

"The market got some footing during the week though the benchmark index lost slightly," LankaBangla Securities said.

Some of the companies' encouraging earnings published last week might have lured investors from the sidelines, the stockbroker said.

Investors were mostly focused on engineering, power and pharma sectors that accounted for 20.4 percent, 19.6 percent and 15.9 percent of last week's total turnover of Tk 3,777 crore, which is 35.99 percent up from the previous week.

Daily average turnover advanced 8.8 percent to Tk 755 crore, compared to the previous week.

Among the sectors, the top gaining sector was information technology that increased 9.07 percent, followed by miscellaneous 1.10 percent, food and allied 0.77 percent, and travel and leisure 0.68 percent.

Conversely, the top losing sector was service and real estate that lost 5.87 percent, followed by tannery 2.77 percent, bank 1.97 percent and life insurance 1.85 percent.

Losers outpaced gainers as 198 declined, 97 advanced and 19 remained unchanged out of 314 issues traded on the DSE.

Western Marine Shipyard dominated the week's top turnover chart for the second consecutive week with 2.79 crore shares worth Tk 229 crore changing hands, followed by Keya Cosmetics, Barakatullah Electro Dynamics, Desco and Jamuna Oil.

National Polymer was the week's top gainer, posting a rise of 45.31 percent, while Tallu Spinning was the worst loser, plunging 27.95 percent.