Stocks keep losing as large-cap ones plunge

Stocks ended marginally lower for two consecutive days on Monday as the investors opted to book profit in the later part of the session.

Market insiders said the investors continued their selling binge on large-cap sectors, particularly banking, financial institutions, and power sectors' stocks.

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) will celebrate the Silver Jubilee of its establishment tomorrow (Wednesday) with arranging a series of programmes.

The market opened on positive note and the key index of the major bourse gained about 24 points within first hour of trading. But the last hour's selling pressure took the market in the negative territory.

DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 9.67 points or 0.17 per cent to settle at 5,540.

"The downward shift in the index is mainly driven by significant negative changes in the large-cap sectors like bank, financial intuitions, telecom and power," commented LankaBangla Securities.

The banking sector saw the highest correction of 0.67 per cent, followed by telecommunication with 0.48 per cent, financial institutions 0.38 per cent, pharmaceuticals 0.37 per cent, food 0.35 per cent and power 0.19 per cent.

Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 6.31 points to finish at 1,941 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 3.92 points to close at 1,272.

Turnover, the most important indicator of the market, however, stood at Tk 9.67 billion, which was 7.22 per cent higher than the previous session's Tk 9.0 billion.

It was also the highest single-day transaction in seven weeks since July 22 when the turnover was recorded at Tk 10.55 billion.

According to International Leasing Securities, the investors' tendency towards profit booking on banking, telecom and financial institutions' stocks took the market in the negative territory.

Of the 329 issues traded, 177 declined, 106 advanced and 46 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.

A total number of 167,896 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 224.24 million securities.

The market capitalisation of the DSE came down to Tk 3,951 billion on the day which was Tk 3,956 billion in the previous session.

Active Fine Chemicals dominated the turnover chart for the second day in a row with shares worth Tk 781 million changing hands.

The other turnover leaders were Khulna Power Company, BBS Cables, Shasha Denims and Summit Power.

National Life Insurance was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 9.96 per cent while National Housing Finance was the worst loser, losing 8.83 per cent.

The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) ended lower with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - losing 20.82 points to settle at 17,096 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -shedding 10.87 points to finish at 10,362.

The losers beat gainers as 134 issues closed lower, 79 ended higher and 24 issues remained unchanged on the CSE.

The port city's bourse traded 11.28 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 429 million in turnover.

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