DSE turnover hits one-month low

Stocks slipped into the red Sunday, after single-session break as turnover dipped below Tk 5.0 billion-mark after a month on the prime bourse, as investors were reluctant to make fresh stake in stocks.
Dealers said the market witnessed mild correction amid thin participation as investors were mostly cautious ahead of Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) coupled with ongoing earnings declaration session.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) is set to announce the MPS for the first half of the current Fiscal Year (FY) 2017-18 on July 26.
"The correction was triggered by slow participation and pursuance of profit booking by the investors amid ongoing earnings session," said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.
He noted that retail investors opted for booking profit, especially issues from engineering, food & allied, power and pharmaceuticals sectors, triggering selling pressure in the market.
After witnessing volatility in the first half of the trading session, later half of the session went down steadily as the risk-averse investors engaged in quick profit booking from sector specific issues, finally closing 6.87 points lower.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 6.87 points or 0.11 per cent to settle at 5,776 over the previous session.
EBL Securities, a stockbroker, said, "The first session of the week witnessed sluggishness as investors kept waiting for a better momentum in the market".
The stockbroker noted that the uncertainty looming over "Monetary Policy Statement" declaration by Bangladesh Bank for FY 2017-18 is responsible for lack of participation of the investors.  
"Investors exerted selling pressures on stocks from cement, engineering, and food & allied sectors, contributing fall of indices," the stockbroker said.
The two other indices also edged lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips saw a fractional loss of 0.62 point or 0.02 per cent to finish at 2,121 points. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) shed 2.35 points or 0.17 per cent to close at 1,311.
Turnover, the important indicator of the market fell to Tk 4.78 billion on the DSE, which was nearly 25 per cent lower than the previous day's Tk 6.36 billion.
It was also the lowest single-day transaction since June 18, this year when turnover was Tk 4.73 billion.
Engineering sector emerged as turnover leader, grabbing 17 per cent of the day's total turnover, followed by textile with 15 per cent and bank 13 per cent.
According to IDLC Investment's market commentary, "The market moved to side-ways as investors opted for cautious stance. As a result, overall activities remained dull, causing total turnover to decline further".
The merchant noted that of the major sectors, engineering, textile and bank contributed a total of 45 per cent of total turnover.
IFAD Autos and Navana CNG from engineering, Paramount Textile from textile and Mercantile Bank from bank held the significant portion of respective sectoral turnover, the merchant bank added.
A total number of 0.087 million trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 144.61 million securities.
The total market capitalisation of the DSE also came down to Tk 3,898 billion which was Tk 3,901 billion in the previous day.
Most of the major sectors posted negative performance. Engineering witnessed the highest correction of 0.28 per cent, followed by food & allied with 0.12 and NBFIs 0.10 per cent, power 0.07 per cent and pharmaceuticals 0.05 per cent.
Telecommunication and bank managed to edge higher by 0.08 per cent and 0.06 per cent respectively.
Losers took a modest lead over the gainers as 328 issues traded, 163 closed lower, 110 closed higher and 55 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
IFAD Autos topped the turnover chart with about 1.50 million shares of Tk 225 million changing hands, closely followed by Mercantile Bank, Navana CNG, LankaBangla Finance, and Ratanpur Steels.
Safko Spinning was the day's highest gainer, posting a 5.96 per cent rise, while Soanrgaon Textiles was the worst loser, plunging by 5.22 per cent.
The port city bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also edged lower with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX - losing 19 points to settle at 10,825 points.
Losers beat gainers as 132 issues closed lower, 87 closed higher and 28 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 8.47 million shares and mutual fund units' worth Tk 255 million in turnover.
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