Stocks witnessed yet another big fall Sunday, extending the losing streak for the sixth day in a row.
The key index of the major bourse fell below 5,900-mark.
Market operators said the persistent liquidity shortage coupled with ongoing pessimism kept investors mostly inactive, taking the key index below 5,900-mark once again.
DSEX, the core index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), plunged 74.85 points or 1.26 per cent to settle at 5,832, which was the six months lowest level of DSEX.
DSEX eroded more than 270 points or 4.42 per cent in the past six consecutive sessions, bringing down the key index more than six months low since August 20, 2017.
When contacted, Khairul Bashar Abu Taher Mohammed, secretary general of Bangladesh Merchant Bankers Association (BMBA), told the FE that there is "no valid reason" for the recent market fall except liquidity shortage.
Mr. Bashar said participation of institutional investors was very low as they were observing the market movement carefully.
"There is no other factor except liquidity shortage that kept institutional investors at bay to make fresh investment in the market," said Mr. Bashar, also the chief executive officer of MTB Capital.
However, he expressed the optimism that the market would rebound soon.
The market started on a downward trend and the downturn continued till end of the session with no sign of reversal. Finally the key index of the DSE ended more than 74 points lower.
Two other indices of the premier bourse also saw sharp fall. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 28 points or 1.30 per cent to finish at 2,142 and DSES (Shariah) shed 14 points or 1.03 per cent to close at 1,361.
Trading activities, however, increased to Tk 3.84 billion, which was 32 per cent higher than the previous day's 20 months lowest turnover of Tk 2.90 billion.
According to EBL Securities, the market nosedived as investors went on panic driven sell-off from the opening of the session of the week that caused the bourse to settle in negative and continued till the end.
"Selling pressure was mostly spurred on stocks from banking, pharmaceuticals and food & allied sectors," said the stockbroker.
The banking sector posted the highest loss of 2.13 per cent and prices of 24 banks closed lower with Dutch-Bangla Bank witnessed the highest correction of 10.78 per cent after its dividend declaration.
It was followed by food & allied with 1.80 per cent correction, followed by non-bank financial institutions 1.55 per cent, engineering 1.33 per cent, pharmaceuticals 1.25 per cent and telecommunication 0.74 per cent.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 333 issues traded, 243 closed lower, 67 higher and 23 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 98,288 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 84.21 million securities.
Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also closed lower with CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - shedding 243 points to settle at 18,008 and Selective Categories Index - CSCX - falling 151 points to finish at 10,867.
The port city bourse traded 5.50 million shares and mutual fund units worth nearly Tk 152 million in turnover.
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