Stocks witnessed yet another bearish session Wednesday, sliding for the sixth day in a row, as risk-averse investors continued their selling spree amid poor quarterly earnings disclosures.
Market operators said ongoing pessimism coupled with upcoming holy month of Ramadan continued to persuade a section of investors to cash in on stocks, taking the market in the red territory further.
"Lower than expected first quarter (Q1) earnings results of two banks-Al-Arafah Islami Bank and Dhaka Bank - disclosed Wednesday also disappointed the investors," said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.
Al-Arafah Bank's consolidated earnings per share (EPS) fell to Tk 0.41 for January-March, 2018 quarter against Tk 0.71 in the same period of the previous year.
Dhaka Bank's consolidated EPS also fell to Tk 0.55 in January-March quarter against Tk 0.57 in the January-March quarter of 2016.
The market opened on positive note like previous few days and the key index gained about 23 points within first 25 minutes of trading, but rest of the session went down steadily, finally DSEX fell more than 15 points while CSE All Share Price Index lost 42 points at closing.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 15.13 points or 0.26 per cent to settle at 5,627. DSEX eroded more than 186 points in six consecutive sessions.
According to International Leasing Securities, the market continued to slide for the sixth session ahead of the holy month of Ramadan.
The stockbroker noted that the trading started with the sign of breaking the losing streak, but just like the previous few sessions, investors opted for liquidation in the later part of the session.
The investors' selling spree was mainly observed in bank, food and financial institution sector stocks, it said.
"The optimistic investors reshuffled their portfolio and took position in engineering, cement, fuel & power, and telecom on the lucrative price levels," the stockbroker said.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, also fell 15.13 points or 0.47 per cent to finish at 2,085. However, the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) advanced 3.19 points or 0.24 per cent to close at 1,309.
EBL Securities, said, "The risk-averse investors continued their selling binge amid ongoing wary market trend and adopted cautious stance ahead of Ramadan and national budget."
Trading activities, however, rose more than 18 per cent on the DSE and the total turnover stood at Tk 5.60 billion, which was Tk 4.73 billion in the previous session.
The engineering sector dominated the turnover chart, capturing 18 per cent of the day's total transactions, followed by food & allied with 16 per cent and pharmaceuticals 13 per cent.
The large-cap sectors showed mixed performance. The banking sector witnessed the highest loss 1.18 per cent, followed by non-bank financial institutions with 0.93 per cent and food & allied 0.86 per cent.
The engineering posted the highest gain of 1.73 per cent, followed by power with 0.80 per cent, telecommunication 0.44 per cent and pharmaceuticals 0.15 per cent.
The losers took modest lead over the gainers as out of 339 issues traded, 171 closed lower, 120 ended higher and 48 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Beximco continued to top the turnover chart with shares worth Tk 240 million changing hands, closely followed by Western Marine Shipyard, United Power, BRAC Bank and Salvo Chemicals.
Prime Textile Spinning Mills was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 9.72 per cent while BIFC was the day's worst loser, losing 5.81 per cent.
The port city's bourse CSE also ended lower with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - losing 53 points to settle at 17,367 and Selective Categories Index - CSCX - shedding 34 points to finish at 10,490.
Here too, losers beat the gainers as 119 issues closed lower, 89 ended higher and 36 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse traded 8.02 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 224 million in turnover.
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