Stocks witnessed yet another bearish session Wednesday, sliding for the sixth day in a row, as investors continued their selling binge amid poor quarterly earnings disclosures.
Market operators said ongoing pessimism coupled with upcoming holy month of Ramadan persuaded many investors to cash in on stocks while some adopted ‘wait-and-see’ stance ahead of national budget.
The market opened on positive note like previous few days and the key index gained about 23 points within first 25 minutes of trading, but rest of the session went down steadily, finally DSEX fell more than 15 points while CSE All Share Price Index lost 42 points at closing.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 15.13 points or 0.26 per cent to settle at 5,627. DSEX shed more than 186 points in six consecutive sessions.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, also fell 15.13 points or 0.47 per cent to finish at 2,085. However, the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) advanced 3.19 points or 0.24 per cent to close at 1,309.
Trading activities rose more than 18 per cent on the DSE and the total turnover amounting to Tk 5.60 billion against Tk 4.73 billion in the previous session.
The losers took modest lead over the gainers as out of 339 issues traded, 171 closed lower, 120 ended higher and 48 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Beximco continued to top the turnover chart with shares worth Tk 240 million changing hands, closely followed by Western Marine Shipyard, United Power, BRAC Bank and Salvo Chemicals.
Prime Textile Spinning Mills was the day’s best performer, posting a gain of 9.72 per cent while BIFC was the day’s worst loser, losing 5.81 per cent.
The port city’s bourse CSE also closed lower with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI – losing 53 points to settle at 17,367 and Selective Categories Index - CSCX – shedding 34 points to finish at 10,490.
Here too, losers beat the gainers as 119 issues closed lower, 89 ended higher and 36 remained unchanged.
The CSE traded 8.02 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 224 million in turnover.
