DSE loses over Tk 10,000cr in market cap last week

After staying up the previous week, the country’s stock market kept bleeding on all four sessions last week (August 7-11) and ended up losing Tk 10,000 in market capitalisation.

Shares and unit prices of most of the companies that participated in the trading in the week fell along with all price indices.

The market’s dismal performance last week can be mostly attributed to the record increase in fuel prices, market insiders say.

After the government’s decision to increase fuel prices on August 5, the stock market fell on Sunday (July 7), the first working day of last week.

The country’s two stock exchanges could not come out of the falling trend even in the next three working days.

The week before (July 31-August 4), the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) was up on all five trading days and gained Tk 21,364 crore in market capitalisation.

Then the record fuel price hike hit the country. The market capitalisation of DSE stood at Tk 5,03,266 crore at the end of the last trading day of last week, which was Tk 10,211 crore less than the last working day of the previous week.

Meanwhile, the benchmark index of DSE, the DSEX was down over 163 points, or 2.59 percent, to 6,148 during the week.

Among other DSE indices, the shariah-based DSES decreased by 29.47 points or 2.14 percent, and the blue-chip DS-30 fell by 70.81 points or 3.13 percent.

While all indices fell, trading volumes also decreased. The DSE had a turnover of Tk 3,584 crore last week, which is Tk 1,474 crore or 29.15 percent less than the previous week.

Last week, the average turnover on the DSE was Tk 896 crore per working day, which is Tk 215 crore or 11.44 percent less than the previous week.

A total of 386 companies participated in the share and unit transactions on the DSE last week. Among the companies, the share price increased by only 41, declined by 287 and remained unchanged by 58.

Beximco Limited’s shares were the most traded on the DSE last week. During the week, the company’s share turnover was Tk 332.83 crore, which is 9.29 percent of the total turnover.

Shares of Malek Spinning came in second place with a turnover of Tk 112.7 crore followed by Intraco Refueling, Sea Pearl, Olympic Industries, Soanli Paper, Coppertec Industries, Makson Spinning, LafargeHolcim and Orion Infusion.

Meanwhile, on the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), the overall index CASPI decreased by 413 points or 2.22 percent to 18,127 during the week and Tk 74.22 crore worth of stocks were traded.