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Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– Bangladesh’s stocks ended marginally lower last week that ended on Thursday as investors followed cautious stance amid ongoing earnings and dividend declarations.

Brokers said some investors preferred to take cautious approach while some other continued selling shares amid ongoing earnings and dividend declarations.

The week featured five trading sessions as usual. Of them, three sessions edged higher while two ended lower.

DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 21.48 points or 0.40 percent to settle at 5,337 points.

“Selling of shares mostly from banking, financial institutions and food sector stocks contributed to fall of indices,” said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.

The banking sector posted the highest loss of 2.81 percent, followed financial institutions with 1.75 percent and food & allied 0.87 percent.

However, some investors took position in the engineering, telecommunication and pharmaceuticals issues anticipating positive earnings disclosure.

The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, also fell 2.31 points to finish at 1,904 points.

However, the DSE Shariah index advanced 5.70 points to end at 1,273.

According to International Leasing Securities, indecisiveness and lack of confidence among the investors created choppy trading during the week.

The stockbroker noted that the wobbly investors persisted their sell offs while some reshuffled their portfolio amid ongoing quarter-end earnings and year-end dividend declarations.

Turnover, another indicator of the market, also declined as total turnover on the DSE amounted to BDT 43.91 billion over the previous week’s BDT 48.50 billion.

The daily turnover averaged BDT 8.78 billion, which was 9.47 percent lower than the previous week’s average of BDT 9.70 billion.

Of the traded issues, 199 closed lower, 131 ended higher and 12 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor.

BBS Cables was the week’s most traded stock with 17.39 million shares worth BDT 1.66 billion changing hands, followed by KDS Accessories, United Power, Bashundhara Paper Mills and Khulna Power Company.

KDS Accessories was the week’s best performer, posting a gain of 39.86 percent last week while Asia Pacific General Insurance was the worst loser, losing 13.36 percent.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended marginally lower with the CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI –losing 69 points to settle at 16,444.

The Selective Categories Index – CSCX – also fell 46 points to close at 9,948.

BBN/SSR/SR