Stocks witnessed a modest fall on Monday, extending the losing streak for the fifth straight session, as nervous investors continued their sell-offs on selective issues.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 3.20 points or 0.07 per cent to settle at 4,385.
DSEX had lost a cumulative 121 points or 2.70 per cent in the past five consecutive sessions.
Market operators said despite the government decided to offload shares of state-owned banks, no positive effects was visible in market amid ongoing volatility.
Recently the government passed a bill to bring the surplus money of 61 state-owned and autonomous agencies to the national exchequer which eroded investors' confidence, said a leading broker.
He noted that most of the investors are in fear of negative effects on the stock market after government decided to bring the surplus money of state agencies to the state coffer.
The government's decision to offload shares of state-owned banks and profitable energy companies to the capital market, also failed to boost investors' confidence, he said.
In recent market developments, Bangladesh Bank has decided to support the ailing stock market with liquidity and might provide a loan size of Tk 20 billion, but no positive impact on the market.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, also saw a fractional loss of 0.88 point to finish at 1,491. However, the DSE Shariah Index gained 3.85 points to close at 1,016.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, also fell and amounted to three-week low to Tk 3.41 billion, which was 5.80 per cent lower than the previous day's turnover of Tk 3.62 billion.
EBL Securities said the central bank's financial stability assessment report on banks profitability plunged at the end of the third quarter of 2019 made investors nervy which caused heavy sell pressure on the biggest capitalized sector.
According to International Leasing ongoing bearish trend prompted the investors to liquidate their holdings from telecom, financial institution, textile, power and bank sectors stock which pushed down the index.
Trading activities have decreased by 5.80 per cent as the investors refrained themselves from putting fresh fund in the shaky market.
The financial institutions sector witnessed the highest loss of 1.44 per cent, followed by telecom with 0.74 per cent, banking 0.65 per cent, food 0.60 per cent and power 0.45 per cent.
On the other hand, engineering and pharmaceuticals sectors gained 0.78 per cent and 0.34 per cent respectively.
Losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 353 issues traded, 166 closed lower, 124 ended higher and 63 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 107,516 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 120.88 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE also fell to Tk 3,357 billion, from Tk 3,363 billion in the previous session.
LafargeHolcim continued to top the turnover chart with shares worth nearly Tk 200 million changing hands, followed by SK Trims & Industries, Orion Infusion, Beacon Pharmaceuticals and ADN Telecom.
SK Trims was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 9.94 per cent while Metro Spinning was the worst loser, losing 6.41 per cent.
The port city's bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange, also saw marginal fall with its All Shares Price Index (CASPI)-losing 30 points to close at 13,381 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -falling 15 points to finish at 8,114.
Here too, the losers beat gainers, as 118 issues closed lower, 77 ended higher and 45 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 5.59 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 173 million in turnover.
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