Business Desk
Both bourses of the country - the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) declined last week that ended on Thursday as the dominant small investors were lackluster in the Muslim fasting month Ramadan, that began on June 19, dealers said.
The investors were lackluster as the closing of the outgoing fiscal year on June 30 Tuesday was nearing and the trading time has been reduced by an hour due to Ramadan.
Al the five usual sessions suffered marginal loss and as a result DSEX, the prime index of DSE, the principal bourse, closed at 4,455.28 points, losing 64.57 points or 1.43 per cent against the previous week.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, closed at 1,715.66 losing 26.96 points or 1.55 per cent and Shariah Index DSES ended at 1092.32 eroding 9.34 points or 0.85 per cent, against the previous week.
At CSE its Selective Categories Index CSCX lost 108.79 points or 1.28 per cent to end the week at 8,349.83, compared to the previous week.
The total turnover for the week ticked at Tk 18.42 billion against Tk 19.36 billion a week ahead. The average daily turnover for the week was Tk 3.68 billion, down  4.83 per cent over the previous week's average of Tk 3.87 billion.
Pharma, power and textile were the lead stocks that attracted investment to the tune of 19 per cent, 14 per cent and 13 per cent respectively of the total turnover of the week.
"The stock market exhibited marginally downbeat momentum last week as the market participants remained skeptic due to the volatile market trend in recent period," said International Leasing Securities, a stock broker, in its analysis.
"Shaky market outlook also kept investors worried and they preferred to stay on sideline amid watchfulness," said the International Leasing.
IDLC Investments, a merchant bank, said, "The market passed the week within the holy month of Ramadan with shortened trading hours, and resultantly lower activities".
The market closed flat in most of the sessions last week, motivating the investors to be choosy amid scrip-wise undervaluation in context of historical and relative values, said the merchant bank.
"During this downward move, market broke 4,500 points support level, hurting investors' sentiment," the merchant bank added.
Some major sectors shares declined in prices and the major sectors engineering, cement and power saw 2.7 per cent, 2.7 per cent and 1.7 per cent loss respectively.
Telecommunication declined 1.69 per cent and Banks retraced by 1.28 per cent last week. NBFIs, pharma and food and allied sectors gained 0.85 per cent, 0.40 per cent and 0.1 per cent respectively.
The losers took a lead over the gainers as out of 324 issues traded, 184 declined, 112 advanced and 28 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Three listed companies - Uttara Finance, National Life Insurance and Rupali Life Insurance recommended dividend last week. Uttara Finance recommended 20 per cent cash and 10 per cent stock dividend, National Life Insurance 45 per cent cash and Rupali Life Insurance recommended 10 per cent stock dividend.
The market capitalisation of the DSE went down further by 0.76 per cent as it was Tk 3,187.64 billion on the opening day of the week and it stood at Tk 3,163.45 billion on closing day of the week.
Lafarge Surma Cement was the week's top turnover leader with shares worth Tk 775.58 million changing hands during the week followed by Beximco Pharma, Square Pharma, Beximco and KPCL.
Hakkani Pulp and Paper was the week's best performer for the second consecutive week, posting a rise of 49.84 per cent while Asia Insurance was the week's worst loser, plunging by 15.43 per cent.
A new issue - Olympic Accessories Ltd (OAL) made trading debut last week in the market in engineering sector. The newcomer witnessed 391 per cent rise from its offer price in the maiden session.