Stocks witnessed yet another bearish session on Sunday, extending the losing streak for the fourth straight session, as most investors followed a cautious stance amid growing macroeconomic worries.
The market index rose about 19 points soon after the trading started, but the rest of the session went down steadily, ultimately ending over 20 points lower.
DSEX, the core index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, went down by 20.21 points to settle at 6,304. The benchmark market gauge lost about 63 points in the past four consecutive sessions.
Turnover, the crucial indicator of the market, remained low and amounted to Tk 5.93 billion, which was 2.07 per cent higher than the previous day’s seven-week lowest turnover of Tk 5.81 billion.
Market operators said the market outlook remains bleak as investors are concerned on several macroeconomic issues such as shrinking foreign currency reserves, depreciating local currency and high inflationary pressure.
The looming uncertainty over the global economy and the commodity market instability continued to dampen the investor sentiment, said a merchant banker, seeking anonymity.
“The ongoing bearish sentiment coupled with inflationary pressure and volatile foreign exchange market created a confidence crisis among the investors,” he said.
The news of foreign-exchange reserves falling below $40 billion level after two years also made investors shaky, he said.
Two other indices also closed in the red. The DS30 Index lost 6.29 points to close at 2,267 and the DSES Index shed 1.11 points to finish at 1,376.
Losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 382 issues traded, 236 declined, 99 advanced and 99 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Beximco was the most-traded stock with shares worth Tk 397 million changing hands, followed by Intraco Refueling Station (290 million), Titas Gas (Tk 162 million), Delta Life Insurance (Tk 139 million) and Fu-Wang Food (Tk 117 million).
Junk stocks dominated the day’s top gainers chart with Mithun Knitting & Dyeing was the top gainer, rising 10 per cent, while the state-run DESCO was the day’s worst loser, losing 2.0 per cent.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower with the CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI –losing nearly 72 points to settle at 18,523 and the Selective Categories Index – CSCX –shedding almost 44 points to close at 11,099.
Of the issues traded, 183 declined, 67 advanced and 40 issues remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city’s bourse traded 6.75 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover value worth Tk 196 million.
