Stocks extended the losing streak for the third straight session Sunday as risk-averse investors continued to book profit on large-cap shares.
Market analysts said investors were mostly on selling mood in later part of the session, particularly on banking, telecom and non-bank financial issues, taking the market index in the downward trend.
The investors adopted a 'cautious' stance after the monetary policy statement (MPS) while some are analysing the companies' quarterly earnings results to pick the right stocks, said a leading broker.
The market opened on upward note and the key index rose about 21 points within first 20 minutes of trading. But rest of the session eroded all the early gains.
Finally, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,801, losing 19.67 points or 0.33 per cent over the previous day.
This downward trend in the market is mainly driven by negative movement in most of the large-cap sectors, said LankaBangla Securities.
According to IDLC Securities, the top three negative index contributors were Islami Bank, National Bank and Grameenphone.
Islami Bank's share plunged 4.41 per cent to close at Tk 26. National Bank's share also lost 2.73 per cent to close at Tk 10.70 and share price of GP slumped 1.05 to close at Tk 394 each.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, also fell 4.12 points to finish at 2,003. However, the DSES (Shariah) saw a fractional gain of 0.78 point to settle at 1,311.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, stood at Tk 9.84 billion, which was Tk 9.92 billion in the previous session.
A total number of 196,246 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 240.66 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE stood at Tk 4,156 billion which was Tk 4,163 billion in the previous day.
The banking sector witnessed the highest loss of 1.49 per cent, followed by telecom with 0.60 per cent, non-bank financial institutions 0.54 per cent, engineering 0.15 per cent and food 0.12 per cent.
The pharmaceuticals and power sector gained 0.94 per cent and 0.87 per cent.
The losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 346 issues traded, 186 closed lower, 133 ended higher and 27 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company topped the turnover chart with 4.84 million shares worth Tk 752 million changing hands, followed by United Power, Khulna Power, Grameenphone and Meghna Petroleum.
ICB AMCL Second Mutual Fund was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 10 per cent while Appollo Ispat Complex was the day's worst loser, shedding 8.79 per cent.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange also ended lower with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - losing 109 points to settle at 17,781 while the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -losing 62 points to finish at 10,754.
Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 166 issues closed lower, 99 higher and 09 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse traded 13.64 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 367 million in turnover.
