Stocks plunged for the second week as investors felt shaky amid political protests and uncertainty around the hearing of writ petitions. The petitions are set for a hearing at the High Court today.

The benchmark General Index of Dhaka Stock Exchange closed the week at 4,991 points, after falling 84.84 points or 1.67 percent.

“The DSE dropped for the third consecutive week as nervous investors could not find any conclusive direction about the market,” LankaBangla Securities said in its weekly market commentary.

“At the end of the week, the market broke the psychological barrier of 5,000 points.”

Political disturbance and uncertainty over the writ petitions caused the turnover to decline, it said.

Daily average turnover lost 7.17 percent to Tk 357 crore, compared to the previous week.

The market analysts said the market plunged as the investors were uncertain about the stalemate over sponsor-directors' mandatory 2 percent shareholding.

The week witnessed five trading sessions as usual. Among those, four sessions lost 139 points while only one session gained 55 points.

A total of 0.08 lakh daily average trades were executed with 7.1 crore shares and mutual fund units changing hands on the Dhaka bourse last week.

Of 276 issues that traded in the week, 204 declined, 67 advanced and five remained unchanged.

Most sectors recorded losses last week. Fuel and power went down 6.2 percent, services and real estate 5.6 percent, textile 4.2 percent and non-bank financial institutions 3.3 percent.

On the other hand cement gained 3.14 percent, insurance 2.5 percent and banks 0.3 percent.

LankaBangla Finance was the turnover leader with 82.9 lakh shares worth Tk 82 crore changing hands.

Republic Insurance Company was the biggest gainer of the day as it rose 17.86 percent. ACI Formulations was the worst loser that slumped 33.90 percent.