DSEX sheds 36.39 points

The stock market dipped for the fourth running sessions Tuesday with turnover remained sluggish as apparent lack of market direction kept investors' indecisive.
The market opened with a negative note and the downward trend continued till the market closure amid modest see-saw. At the end of the session, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSEX) ended at 4,554.78 points, shedding 36.39 points or 0.79 per cent.
The other two indices also saw sharp decline. The DS30, comprising blue chips lost 19.73 points or 1.19 per cent to close at 1,635.98 points. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) went down by 14.27 points or 1.41 per cent to close at 995.01 points.
Turnover value on DSE remained sluggish and stood at Tk 3.22 billion, registering 10.27 per cent increase over the previous session's two and a half month lowest turnover of Tk 2.92 billion.
"Profit booking in selective Large Cap scrips turned the day's session red, one more time," commented IDLC Investments.
"Marginal level of panic sale resulted the losing streak to be extended to fourth session, causing a total loss of 118 points from the benchmark index, DSEX," said the merchant bank.
Meanwhile, apparent lack of market direction kept investors somewhat dozy during the day's trading. As cautious stance came up-front, market activity became sluggish, causing turnover to register at Tk 3.22 billion, the merchant bank said.
However, having tri-session of declining vibe in bank sector, lucrative price advantages lured some investors and assisted to rebound the banking scrips, the merchant bank added.
"The country's capital market prolonged its ongoing winning tone," commented International Leasing Securities.
Slight positive movement of banks and food & allied sectors were not enough to mend the market's overall negative vibe, said the International Leasing Securities.
"A hefty sell-off in market has seen the benchmark index suffer a 36.4 points fall, as investors appeared to get a wobble in investment behavior," commented LankaBanlga Securities.
DSEX came down to a one and a half months low of 4,555 points as traders were mostly in selling side after last few trading sessions' tumble on index, the stock broker said.
Fuel & power, textile and engineering sector were under pressure as large cap stocks of these sectors dragged, it said.
However, investors are showing interest in bank over manufacturing and financial sectors as they are lured by low multiplier of the banking stocks, said the stock broker.
"Investors are now desperately waiting for the market correction to hit a break and change its course," observed Zenith Investments.
However, a definite direction whether positive or negative is still better than frequent fluctuation which leaves investors in a perplexed situation, the Zenith analysis said.  
The losers took a lead over the gainers as out of 285 issues traded, 178 declined, 78 advanced and 29 issues closed unchanged on the DSE floor.
Among the large cap sectors, banks posted a mild recovery from the last session's heavy correction with 0.69 per cent gain followed by food & allied with 0.23 per cent gain.  
Fuel & power lost the most with 1.46 per cent loss followed by telecommunications 1.44 per cent pharmaceuticals 0.64 per cent. NBFIs edged down by 0.12 per cent.
Activities increased in the major bourse (DSE) where volume and trade were up 0.84 per cent and 7.37 per cent. A total of 0.083 million trades were executed with 58.06 million securities of trading volume.
The market capitalization of the DSE stood at Tk 2,854.52 billion against Tk 2,870.95 billion in the previous session.
Square Pharma became the top turnover leaders with shares worth Tk 240.62 million changing hands followed by BSC, Padma Oil, Lafarge Surrma Cement and GP.
IPDC was also the day's highest gainer; posting a rise of 10.92 per cent following its dividend declaration of 5 per cent cash and 10 per cent stock dividend while Bank Asia was the day's worst losers, slumping by 7.85 per cent.
The port city bourse --- the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX lost 85.35 points to close at 8,853.29 points.
Losers beat gainers 142 to 68, with 17 issues remaining unchanged at the port city bourse that traded 6.40 million shares and mutual fund units, turnover value of Tk 279.75 million.