Stocks witnessed a major setback Monday as the core index of the premier bourse hit below 6,000-mark after two months, as risk-averse investors went on selling spree.
Market insiders said significant downward movement of the large-cap sectors such as bank, financial institutions, food & allied and power caused the erosion in index.
"Recent earnings and corporate declarations from several listed companies have failed to satisfy investors' expectation that resulted into selling frenzy," said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.
He noted that the small investors were cautious about fresh exposure to the market, while institutional investors continuously injected money into stocks amid ongoing earning disclosures and dividend declarations.
Islami Bank's earnings per share (EPS) fell 32.60 per cent to Tk 0.31 in July-September, 2017 as against Tk 0.46 in the same period a year ago. Islami Bank's share price fell 1.19 per cent to close at Tk 33.10 each on the day.
Notable selling pressure was observed on the banking sector with 28 banks, out of 30 listed banks closed in the red. Accordingly, the banking sector plunged 1.85 per cent, the highest among the major sectors.
The market started with a downward note and the downturn continued till end of the session with no sign of reversal. It finally ended more than 59 points lower.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 59.25 points or 0.98 per cent to settle at 5,982, the lowest level in nearly two months since August 30.
The two other indices -- the DS30 index and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) - also closed at 2,175 and 1,325 points, after losing 14.74 points and 7.43 points respectively.
The total turnover came down to Tk 5.23 billion, which was 3.68 per cent lower than the previous day's turnover of Tk 5.43 billion.
Banking sector kept its dominance in turnover chart, capturing 24 per cent of the day's total transaction, followed by engineering with 14 per cent and financial institutions 13.5 per cent.
"The benchmark index of the premier bourse saw sharp decline amid daylong selling spree," said EBL Securities, a stockbroker, in its regular analysis.
The port city bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also closed lower with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX - losing 105 points to settle at 11,216.
Losers beat gainers as 158 issues closed lower, 52 closed higher and 23 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 23.52 million shares and mutual fund units' worth Tk 560 million in turnover.
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