The subscription of Robi Axiata, the biggest IPO in the history of Bangladesh ended on Monday which eased some selling pressure in the market in the later part of the session, said a merchant banker.
Robi, the country's second-largest mobile phone operator, will raise Tk 5.23 billion under the fixed price method.
The biggest IPO in Bangladesh's history received a good response from investors as thousands of investors applied for its IPO, according to issue manager sources.
Meanwhile, stocks extended the losing streak for the fourth straight sessions on Monday as cautious investors continued their sell-offs on sector-wise large-cap issues.
The market witnessed a steep fall at the opening as the core index slumped more than 65 points within first 25 minutes of trading. However, it recovered two-third of the early losses at the end of the session.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 23.26 points or 0.48 per cent to settle at 4,817.
The benchmark market barometer lost more than 84 points in the past four consecutive sessions.
Market operators said investors mostly followed a cautious stance amid the rising trend of Covid-19 infections while some gave their attention to the primary market.
Notable price fall of some large-cap stocks sent the market on a downward trend, said a leading broker.
Top negative index contributors of the market were Square Pharmaceuticals, Investment Corporation of Bangladesh, United Power, Grameenphone, and British American Tobacco, according to data from amarstock.com, a stock market data analyst.
These five stocks contributed for 24 points fall of DSEX while Square Pharma alone accounted for 13 points fall.
Square Pharma, a large-cap stock, has lost 7.74 per cent or Tk 16.10 each on Monday, after adjustment of bonus dividend which notably impacted the day's index, commented EBL Securities.
The leading drug maker declared 47 per cent cash and 5.0 per cent stock dividend for the year ended on June 30, 2020.
Two other indices also closed lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, lost 15.42 points to finish at 1,669 and the DSE Shariah Index dropped 13.01 points to close at 1,107.
The daily trade turnover on the DSE, however, rose to Tk 6.21 billion, which was 25 per cent higher than the previous day's four-month lowest turnover of Tk 4.95 billion.
According to International Leasing Securities, the shaky investors continued their sell-offs from engineering, telecom, power, and pharma sectors.
However, the enthusiastic investors took positions on general insurance, mutual fund, and life insurance sectors, said the stockbroker.
Among the major sectors, engineering witnessed the highest correction of 2.70 per cent, followed by telecom with 1.40 per cent, power 1.0 per cent, pharma 0.80 per cent, food 0.50 per cent and banking 0.32 per cent.
General insurance and mutual fund sectors back on track, gaining, 6.70 per cent and 2.40 per cent respectively.
Losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 344 issues traded, 134 closed lower, 124 higher and 86 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 127,756 trades were executed in the day's trading session with a trading volume of 220.26 million shares and mutual fund units.
Beximco Pharma continued to dominate the turnover chart with 2.17 million shares worth Tk 305 million changing hands, followed by Square Pharma, Eastern Insurance, Nitol Insurance and Asia Insurance.
The insurance sector returned to the gaining streak as the day's top 10 gainers belong to the insurance sector.
Nitol Insurance was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 10 per cent while Kattali Textile was the worst loser, losing 10.47 per cent following its price adjustment after record date.
