Stocks slipped into the red on Tuesday as investors were mostly on selling spree amid lower than expected earnings of some companies.
Market analysts said most of the investors remained cautious amid ongoing earnings declarations as a number of companies disclosed poor quarterly earnings during the trading session.
The Bangladesh Bank is set to unveil its first half-yearly (H1) monetary policy for the current fiscal year (FY) 2019-20 on Wednesday, with the policy rates likely to remain unchanged, which also prompted some investors to stay sideline.
The market opened on positive note and the key index rose about 17 points within 40 minutes of trading. But rest of session eroded the initial gains amid selling pressure.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 35.72 points or 0.69 per cent to settle at 5,125.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 17.38 points to finish at 1,826 and the DSES (Shariah) index lost 9.33 points to settle at 1,177.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, stood at Tk 4.30 billion, which was 1.82 per cent lower than the previous day’s turnover of Tk 4.38 billion.
A total number of 124,450 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 139.49 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE also fell to Tk 3,824 billion on Tuesday, from Tk 3,861 billion in the previous day.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 352 issues traded, 268 closed lower, 64 higher and 20 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
United Power topped the turnover chart with shares worth Tk 230 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were Fortune Shoes, Monno Ceramic, Bangladesh Shipping Corporation and Beacon Pharma.
Monno Jute Stafflers was the day’s best performer, posting a gain of 7.49 per cent while Asian Tiger Sandhani Life Growth Fund was the day’s worst loser, slumping by 14.52 per cent following its corporate declaration.
The port city bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange, also finished lower with the CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI – losing 118 points to settle at 15,676 while the Selective Categories Index – CSCX –falling 72 points to finish at 9,526.
Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 118 issues ended lower, 72 higher and 23 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse traded 7.82 million shares and mutual fund units worth nearly Tk 204 million in turnover.
