Bulls on a leash

A long bullish spell in the Dhaka market fizzled out last week with most stocks going down.
The benchmark index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSE General Index, fell 87.03 points, or 2.84 percent, to 2,982.68 week-on-week. The DSE All Share Price Index declined 74.87 points, or 2.91 percent, to 2,493.91 on Thursday, the week's last trade day.
After an increase of about 6 percent in the previous week, the opening trade day of last week recorded a fall of over 3 percent in the general index. The market crept slowly up for the rest of the week.
The general index fall can be mostly attributed to a dramatic decline in bank shares, analysts said.
"The fall in the banking shares started just after reports came out that Bangladesh Bank decided to check all the banks for irregularities. This led to a panic situation with investors dumping the banking sector stocks," Equity Partners Limited (EPL), an investment firm, said in its weekly market analysis.
On the other hand, it said, a large number of investors were undecided on what direction the market was going to take and were adopting a wait-and-see approach.
It also led the daily average turnover on a path to a downtrend, the EPL analysis said.
Daily average turnover on the premier bourse fell 18.17 percent to Tk 726.01 crore.
But total turnover increased 2.29 percent to Tk 3,630.06 crore last week, as the bourse operated a day less in the previous week because of bank holiday.
Like banks, the pharmaceuticals sector also saw a price decline. A dividend declaration by Square Pharmaceuticals, a large cap stock, did not live up to investor expectations, which led to a massive slump in prices putting squeezes on the pharmaceuticals sector.
Square Pharma announced 40 percent cash and 25 percent stock dividend last week.
Other sectors also posted slight price declines.
With the general index hanging in the range of the 3,000 points mark, the direction of the market seems currently unpredictable, EPL said.
"However, since no adverse news in the real economy is in sight we don't see any reason for the market to fall from the current level," it said.
Previously, the continuous upward movement in the stock prices was leading to an overheated market condition. "However with the price correction, the possibility of stock mispricing now seems to be averted," EPL added.
The losers beat the losers 155 to 83. Three securities remained unchanged. A total of 18,17,15,497 shares traded on the DSE, marking a 5.27 percent rise.
Market capitalisation fell 0.13 percent to Tk 1,26,718.74 crore.
Beximco topped the turnover leaders with 1,05,61,200 shares worth Tk 310.81 crore being traded, which was 8.56 percent of total turnover. The other turnover leaders were Titas Gas, Beximco Pharma, AB Bank, Bextex, Square Pharma, Summit Power, Grameen Mutual Fund One: Scheme Two, Prime Finance and LankaBangla Finance.
Chittagong stocks also declined. The CSE Selective Categories Index slipped 0.23 percent to 6,679.71 points. The CSE All Share Price Index slid 0.34 percent to 10,312.97 points.
A total of 2,98,71,486 shares worth Tk 469.01 crore changed hands on the Chittagong Stock Exchange. Of the traded securities, 89 advanced, 80 declined and nine remained unchanged.
AB Bank topped the turnover leaders on the port city bourse with 6,09,011 shares worth Tk 60.91 crore being traded. Other turnover leaders were Beximco, Bextex, Beximco Pharma, Titas Gas, Square Pharma, Grameen Mutual Fund One: Scheme Two, Shinepukur Ceramics, Islami Bank and Union Capital.