Stocks tumble for third day

Stocks continued to fall for the third consecutive session Tuesday, as investors released their holdings in fear of further fall.
Analysts said many investors withdrew fund to buy newly listed Aman Feed's share while speedy disposal of stock-scam cases created worries for some big investors as they are facing the trial on allegation of manipulation, leaving a psychological impact on others.
Investor's attention was mostly concentrated on newly listed stock Aman Feed, which achieved 173 per cent gain on its debut day, despite the overall market tumble.
The market opened with a downturn which sustained till closure of session, dragged down by most sectors. DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), plunged 44.14 points or 0.92 per cent to settle at 4,724.51. It was the biggest single-day fall in the last one month.
The two other indices also fell sharply. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, plunged 20.68 points or 1.13 per cent to finish at 1,806.29. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) shed 11.11 points or 0.94 per cent to end at 1,165.37.
Total turnover on DSE improved to Tk 4.21 billion, which was 20 per cent higher than the previous day's Tk 3.51 billion as the new issue Aman Feed alone accounted for around 19.52 per cent of day's total turnover.
Miscellaneous, engineering and pharma sectors grabbed the investors' attention - the sectors accounted for 27 per cent, 11.62 per cent and 11.57 per cent receptivity of the day's total turnover.
 "Investors remained worried and mostly preferred to stay on the side line amid watchfulness. The recent verdict and forthcoming hearing of the 1996 share market scam cases also accelerated the nervousness amongst the investors," International Leasing Securities, a stockbroker.
MTB Capital, a merchant bank, said, "Active investors tried to judge the situation as recent verdict and upcoming hearing on share market scam created the atmosphere gloomy".
 "Strong sell-off in large-cap issues due to their sticky price movements battered the market" said IDLC Investments, a merchant bank adding that as the market failed to yield any inspiring move investors got impatient and liquidated a part of their holdings.
 "The rebalancing was intensified with dazzling debut of Aman Feed, which soared by 172.8 per cent from its issue price and attracted funds to it," said the merchant bank.
 "Market saw sharp slide in line with the sell-off in the global stock market," said LankaBangla Securities, a stockbroker, in an analysis.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also closed lower with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX - lost 53.89 points to end at 8827.76.
Losers beat gainers 151 to 61, with 25 issues remained unchanged on the port city bourse that traded 10.36 million shares and mutual fund units with a value of Tk 439 million.
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