Stocks edged lower on Sunday as investors remained cautious amid ongoing pandemic situation and floor price limitation.
DSEX, the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 5.21 points or 0.13 per cent to settle at 3,981.
Two other indices also ended marginally lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 3.37 points to finish at 1,336 and the DSE Shariah Index shed 1.06 points to close at 921.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, stood at Tk 734 million, which was 9.50 per cent lower than the previous day’s turnover of Tk 811 million.
Market operators said investors mostly followed cautious stance due to the adverse impact of worsening Covid-19 pandemic with looming uncertainty about economic growth.
Reduction of lock-in period for undisclosed money investment in stocks to one year from proposed three years in the final budget also failed to attract investors amid worsening virus situation, said an analyst.
Lack of participation from the institutional investors along with regulator-set floor prices kept the investors out of the trading floor, he said.
Most of the shares remained stuck on the trading floor. Of the issues traded, 214 remained unchanged while 30 issues advanced and 36 declined on the DSE floor.
A total number of 22,884 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with a trading volume of 30.84 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap on the premier bourse also fell to Tk 3,115 billion on Sunday, from Tk 3,117 billion in the previous session.
Wata Chemicals topped the turnover chart with shares worth Tk 73 million changing hands, followed by Beximco Pharma, Bangladesh Submarine Cable, GlaxoSmithKline, and Sonarbangla Insurance.
Eastern Insurance was the day’s best performer, posting a gain of 14.76 per cent following its corporate declaration while Tung Hai Knitting was the worst loser, losing 9.09 per cent.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange also edged lower with its All Shares Price Index (CASPI)—losing 10 points to close at 11,310 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX –shedding 6.83 points to finish at 6,847.
Of the issues traded, 19 gained, 23 declined and 58 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 2.67 million shares and mutual fund units with a turnover value of Tk 893 million.
