The daily trade turnover on the Dhaka bourse came down to Tk 2.56 billion on Sunday, hitting five and a half months low, as most of the investors were reluctant to make fresh investment in stocks.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, stood at Tk 2.56 billion on the country’s premier bourse, slumping further by 20 per cent over previous day’s mark of Tk 3.22 billion.
It was the lowest single-day transaction since May 15, this year, when the turnover totaled a record Tk 2.56 billion.
Market analysts said institutional investors mostly followed ‘wait-and-see’ approach amid liquidity crunch while small investors were not confident enough to inject fresh fund, taking the market turnover to five and a half months low.
The institutional investors are in hands-off position as they fear of the liquidity pressure in coming days amid soaring interest rates in the banking sector, said an analyst.
The market index also ended lower on Sunday after two days’ gain amid selling pressure.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, went down by 19.35 points or 0.40 per cent to settle at 4,752.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 6.73 points to finish at 1,668 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 5.53 points to close at 1,090.
A total number of 91,312 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 83.99 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE rose to Tk 3,594 billion on Sunday, from Tk 3,610 billion in the previous session.
Losers took a modest over the gainers as out of 350 issues traded, 176 closed lower, 132 ended higher and 42 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Sonar Bangla Insurance topped the turnover chart with shares worth Tk 117 million changing hands, followed by National Tubes, SK Trims Industries, Square Pharma and Beacon Pharma.
Al-Haj Textile was the day’s best performer, posting a gain of 9.93 per cent while Anlima Yarn Dyeing was the day’s worst loser, plunging by 9.88 per cent.
The port city’s bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange, also ended lower with its All Shares Price Index CASPI—losing 70 points to close at 14,461 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX –shedding 42 points to finish at 8789.
Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 127 issues closed lower, 76 ended higher and 33 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 5.20 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 114 million in turnover.