DGEN finishes week at 20-month low

The New Age

Dhaka stocks remained bearish last week with its benchmark index hitting 20-month low on Thursday, the closing trading day of the week, as investors were gripped by fears over the direction of the market that went into a tailspin for the third consecutive week.
Stock market analysts attributed the downtrend to the investors’ worries over the market direction.
Dhaka Stock Exchange’s benchmark index, DSE general index, lost 19.96 points, or 0.82 per cent, in the week to close at 2,408.67, the lowest since August 26, 2007.
DSE20 index of blue chips, however, finished up by 16.46 points, or 0.89 per cent, to 1,869.75 on some price recovery of bank stocks included in the index, market operators said.
Of the five trading days, Dhaka stocks saw rise only on Monday, riding on the surges in the prices of bank securities, which remained depressed for months. Bank stocks also saw some gains on Thursday.
‘But the market failed to maintain the Monday’s positive mood in the following trading days as investors, downcast by the recent dullness in the market, rushed to take profits,’ said Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, who teaches finance at Dhaka University.
He said that Bangladesh Bank’s decision on cutting lending rate for banks might have triggered the sales off.
‘Any upward or downward movement of the bank stocks influences the market as this sector accounted for around 40 per cent of the market capitalisation,’ he said.
Salahuddin, however, said ‘speculative’ nature of investment had been dominating the market in recent weeks.
However, of the top 10 gainers of the week, six were banks. They were Dutch-Bangla Bank, Mutual Trust Bank, AB Bank, Pubali Bank, IFIC Bank and Uttara Bank.
Market operators said the bank stocks recovered some steam last week after a long lull that pushed the share prices of the financial issues to their bottom line.
The daily average turnover at the DSE increased in the week by 19.99 per cent to Tk 426 crore. The week’s total turnover was Tk 2,129 crore.
Summit Power topped the turnover leaders with a total transaction of Tk 191.24 crore.
Beximco, PGCB, Shinepukur Ceramics, S Alam Cold Rolled Steels, Titas Gas, DESCO, Beximco Pharmaceuticals, Eastern Housing and Summit Alliance Port were the rest of the top 10 turnover leaders.