Stocks witnessed yet another setback on Monday, with the Dhaka bourse’s prime index tumbling below 4,700-mark after three years, as investors dumped their holdings to prevent further losses.
DSEX, the prime index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), slumped 53.42 points or 1.12 per cent to settle at 4,699—the lowest level since November 17, 2016.
Market analysts said the investors have been suffering a crisis of confidence for long and the recent fall of the index mounted the crisis among them.
They said lower than expected dividend recommendation and some companies “no” dividend declarations during the trading hours also dampened investors’ confidence.
The institutional investors were mostly followed ‘wait-and-see’ approach amid liquidity crunch while small investors were not confident enough to inject fresh fund amid ongoing depressed market trend, said a leading broker.
The government’s supportive measures like redefining banks’ capital market exposure and amending public issues rules also failed to boost the fund flow, he said.
The market opened on negative note and the downward trend continued until end of the session with no sign of revisal.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 19.41 points to finish at 1,648 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 16.32 points to close at 1,074.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, stood at Tk 3.05 billion, which was nearly 19 per cent higher than the previous day’s turnover of Tk 2.57 billion.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 353 issues traded, 260 closed lower, 57 ended higher and 36 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 113,920 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 117.68 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also fell to Tk 3,562 billion on Monday, from Tk 3,594 billion in the previous session.
National Tubes topped the turnover chart with shares worth Tk 153 million changing hands, followed by Sonar Bangla Insurance, Standard Ceramic, Monno Ceramic and VFS Thread Dyeing.
Standard Ceramic was the day’s best performer, posting a gain of 20.48 per cent while Salvo Chemicals was the day’s worst loser, plunging by 33.60 per cent.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange, also ended lower with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI –shedding 135 points to settle at 14,325 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX –losing 79 points to finish at 8,710.
Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 175 issues closed higher, 63 ended lower and 16 remained unchanged.
