Stocks plummeted Sunday, extending the losing streak for the 13 straight sessions, much to the chagrin of investors.
The core index of the major bourse dipped below 5400-mark after a year on the day.
Market insiders said investors were mostly on selling spree fearing further fall of stock prices while disappointing earnings disclosures from most of the banks affected the confidence of the investors.
"The ongoing pessimism coupled with disappointing earning results while deepening liquidity problem kept investors mostly inactive, dragging the market down," said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.
He noted that the institutional investors mostly refrained from injecting fresh funds into the market amid liquidity crisis and many of them tried to leave the market by selling their stakes to avoid further loss.
Since beginning of the year, indices have been on the downward direction, with some periodic upward movement.
During the fall in 13 consecutive sessions, the longest ever bearish spell, prime index lost more than 423 points while it lost about 946 points or nearly 15 per cent from its peak recorded on November 26, 2017.
The trading started on a negative trend and the downward trend continued till end of the session with no sign of reversal. Finally, DSEX drifted more than 52 points lower while CSE All Share Price Index fell 162 points at closing.
DSEX, core index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 52.61 points or 0.96 per cent to settle at 5,390. It was the lowest level of the core index since May 30, 2017.
According to International Leasing Securities, worried investors liquidated their position from almost all the sectors, especially telecom, food, engineering, financial institution and textile sectors which led the index to fall below 5,400 points," said the stockbroker.
The two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell more than 16 points or 0.80 per cent to finish at 2,009. The DSE Shariah Index lost 12 points or 0.96 per cent to close at 1265.
The participation from the investors remained shaky due to ongoing bearish trend of the market and the total turnover on the DSE fell to Tk 3.95 billion, which was 20 per cent lower than the previous day's Tk 4.93 billion.
"Issues like widening of current account deficit and liquidity crisis in the banking sector made investors concerned," commented EBL Securities, in an analysis.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also came down to Tk 3,837 billion on Sunday, eroding more than 209 billion, from Tk 4,046 billion registered 13 sessions back on April 26.
Telecommunication sector posted the loss of 2.16 per cent, followed by food & allied 1.67 per cent, engineering 1.16 per cent, non-bank financial institutions 1.05 per cent, power 1.0 per cent, banking 0.58 per cent and pharmaceuticals 0.40 per cent.
Prices of 78 per cent traded issues declined as out of 334 issues traded, 261 closed lower, 50 ended higher and 23 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Newly-listed Intraco Refueling Station topped the DSE turnover chart with shares worth nearly Tk 133 million changing hands, closely followed by Bangladesh Steel Re-rolling Mills, Queen South Textile, Western Marine Shipyard and Legacy Footwear.
Advent Pharma was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 9.97 per cent while Bangladesh National Insurance Company was the day's worst loser, shedding 8.75 per cent price.
The port city bourse CSE also ended lower with its CSE All Share Price Index - CAPSI- losing 169 points to settle at 16,635 and Selective Categories Index - CSCX - falling 99 points to finish at 10,059 points.
The losers beat the gainers as 155 issues closed lower, 38 nudged higher and 24 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 5.42 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 168 million in turnover.
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