Stocks finished lower on Sunday, snapping a three-day gaining streak, as risk-averse investors went on late hours selling binge on major sector issues.
Following the previous day’s marginal gain, the market started marginally higher, but last hour heavy sale pressure wiped out more than 61 points from the key index.
DSEX, the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 61.41 points or 0.86 per cent to settle at 7,000.94, after gaining 177 points in the past three consecutive days.
Top negative index contributors were British American Tobacco, Walton, United Power, LafargeHolcim and ICB, contributing more than 37 points fall of DSEX jointly, according to amarstock.com.
Two other indices also edged lower with the DS30 index, comprising blue chips, dropping 18.31 points to finish at 2,620 and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) fell 8.89 points to close at 1,470.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, stood at Tk 16.37 billion on the prime bourse, which was 5.05 per cent lower than the previous day’s tally of Tk 17.24 billion.
Market analysts said stocks plunged, triggered by the profit-booking by retail investors in the well-performing and large-cap companies.
Many investors also rebalanced their portfolios based on listed companies’ recently disclosed earnings and dividend declarations, said a stockbroker.
Losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 375 issues traded, 226 declined, 122 advanced and 27 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 255,170 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with a trading volume of 423.22 million securities.
The market cap of DSE also dropped to Tk 5,595 billion, from Tk 5,635 billion in the previous day.
Beximco was the most traded stock with shares worth Tk 1.20 billion changing hands, closely followed by IFIC Bank (995 million), Saif Powertec (Tk 552 million), Orion Pharma (Tk 448 million), and Fortune Shoes (Tk 445 million).
Safko Spinning Mills was the day’s top gainer, posting a gain of 20.79 per cent following its corporate declaration while Aramit cement was the day’s worst loser, shedding 23.01 per cent following its no dividend declaration.
The port city bourse CSE also fell sharply with the CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI –losing 148 points to settle at 20,480 and Selective Categories Index – CSCX – shedding 87 points to finish at 12,305.
Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 174 issues closed lower, 101 higher and 24 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse traded 19.02 million shares and mutual fund units worth nearly Tk 565 million in turnover.
