Stocks witnessed sharp decline on Thursday as investors were mostly on selling spree, fearing further fall of stock prices.
Analysts said the ongoing pessimism coupled with fear of political unrest ahead of the upcoming national election, persuading them to sell off their stocks.
The market opened on positive note and the key index of the major bourse rose about 10 points within first 10 minutes of trading. But rest of the session went down steadily.
Finally, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled the week at 5,342, losing 47.96 points or 0.88 per cent over the previous day.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, also fell 13.05 points to close at 1,884 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 10.24 points to finish at 1,230.
Turnover, the another important indicator of the market, remained almost same as total turnover amounting to Tk 5.25 billion which was Tk 5.15 billion in the previous day.
Prices of 67 per cent traded issues closed lower as out of the 337 issues traded, 224 closed lower, 77 ended higher and 36 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 111,640 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 117.46 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE came down to Tk 3,859 billion on the day which was Tk 3,880 billion in the previous session.
United Power Generation & Distribution Company dominated the turnover chart with 1.61 million shares worth Tk 518 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were IFAD Autos, Khulna Power, Intech and Active Fine Chemicals.
SK Trimps & Industries was the best performer, posting a gain of 9.89 per cent while Khulna Printing & Packaging was the worst loser, losing 9.50 per cent.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower with its CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI – losing 98 points to settle at 16,459 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX –shedding 60 points to finish at 9,969.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as 143 issues closed lower, 67 ended higher and 22 issues remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city’s bourse traded 6.48 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 207 million in turnover.
