Babul Barman
Dhaka stocks ended lower for the fourth consecutive week with substantially declining turnover value amid meager participation, as most of the investors traded shares cautiously and wanted to see outcome of the pending writs.

The market insiders said 'wait-and-see' policy adopted by most of the investors following sponsor-directors' shareholding issue along with lack of institutional participation continued to drive the market lower.

"Prevailing lack of confidence, coupled with loss-aversion attitude and absence of fresh investments forced the market to end another week with lower turnover," said an analyst.

The week witnessed five trading sessions as usual. Among those, first three sessions lost 165 points while last two sessions gained 102 points.

In the week, the benchmark general index of the DSE---DGEN, the yardstick of the market, slipped 63.59 points or 1.33 per cent to close at 4,734.33.

The broader All Shares Price Index (DSI) went down by 48.06 points or 1.19 per cent to 4,007.33. The DSE-20 Index comprising blue chips also lost 35.61 points or 0.97 per cent to close at 3,643.97.

"Anxiety and lack of confidence among the investors plunged the market during the first three trading session of the week. However, optimism pulled up the index at the end of the week following the news of sponsor-directors' applications to the regulator to extend time of minimum shareholding," commented LankaBangla Securities in its weekly analysis.

The investors were vigilant all over the week. Buy pressure was minimum and the market activities were significantly down throughout the week, it added.

"The lower turnover indicates that the big and intuitional investors were remained inactive and they followed 'go slow' policy, as further writs challenging the SEC in exercising its power under Section 2CC are still pending, which put negative impact in the market," said a stock broker.

But, possibility of decision from the court regarding the latest five writ petitions created hopes among the investors in the last two sessions, which helped the index to close higher.

Application by over hundred sponsor-directors to the SEC seeking time extension to buy minimum shares also made the investors optimistic in the last two sessions.

Meanwhile, the SEC got the judgment copy of three writs filed against minimum two per cent share holding which the High Court rejected earlier on May 21 upholding the SEC directive.

Amid lower participation and cautious trading, the total turnover value came down to Tk 9.65 billion against Tk 14.64 billion in the previous week.

The average daily turnover value came down to Tk 1.93 billion which was 34.11 per cent lower compared to Tk 2.92 billion in the previous week.

In May, the average turnover value declined by 60.30 per cent to Tk 3.18 billion which was Tk 8.02 billion in April due to growing uncertainties, deteriorated confidence level and bearish trend.

"Cautiously participation of investors as well as wait-and-see policy forced the market to experienced lower turnover," said a stock broker.

During the month, the DGEN also lost 464.39 points as it was 5,198.72 in the opening day of the month of May and stood at 4,734.33 on May 31.

Out of 275 issues traded in the week, 181 declined, 78 advanced and 16 remained unchanged.

The market capitalisation of the DSE also declined by 0.70 per cent in the week, as it was Tk 2,549.93 billion on the opening day of the week, and at the end of the week it stood at Tk 2,532.04 billion.

A company---Sandhani Life Insurance---made corporate declaration in the week. The board of directors of the company recommended 48 per cent stock dividend for the year that ended on December 31, 2011.

Lafarge Surma Cement topped the week's turnover chart with shares worth Tk 584.53 million changed hands.

The other turnover leaders were Grameenphone (GP), Lankabangla Finance, Jamuna Oil, Meghna Petroleum, Beximco Limited, Square Pharma, Aftab Automobiles, City Bank and MI Cement.

Purabi General Insurance was the week's top gainer, posting a rise of 20.92 per cent.

It was followed by FAS Finance, BD Finance, First Lease Finance, GSP Finance, Seventh ICB, First Bangladesh Fixed Income Fund, MIDAS Financing, United Insurance and Grameen Mutual One.

The week's worst losers included Shahjalal Islami Bank, CMC Kamal, Beach Hatchery, First Security Islami Bank, Shyampur Sugar Mills, Pragati Life Insurance, Sinobangla Industries, Salvo Chemical, Samata Leather and Monno Jute Stafflers