Stocks nosedived further on Wednesday, with turnover hitting four months low on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), as investors were mostly reluctant to make fresh investment amid ongoing pessimism.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, dipped below Tk 12 billion-mark and amounted to Tk 11.54 billion on the country's premier bourse, in a further decline by 11 per cent over the previous day's tally of Tk 12.95 billion.
It was the lowest single-day transaction since June 29 this year, when turnover was recorded at Tk 11.48 billion.
Along with low turnover, DSEX, the prime index of the DSE, also fell sharply by 56.07 points or 0.80 per cent to settle at 6,898. DSEX lost more than 164 points in the past four consecutive days.
Two other indices also ended lower with the DSE 30 Index, comprising blue chips, slumped by 20.13 points to finish at 2,585 and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) shed 7.01 points to close at 1,461.
Market analysts said the institutional investors might have hesitated to take fresh stake in the market while the retail investors continued their sell-offs on big cap stocks amid lack of clear market direction.
"The ongoing pessimism kept investors mostly inactive, bringing the turnover below Tk 12 billion-mark after four months," said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm, seeking anonymity.
The market downturn continued as the large-cap sector stocks observed setbacks since most of the investors trimmed losses amid recent volatility in the market, he said.
Top negative index contributors were British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATBC), Walton, Grameenphone, Square Pharma and Robi. These five large-cap stocks jointly contributed 37 points fall to DSEX, while BATBC alone accounted for 17 points, according to amarstock.com.
Share price of the heavyweight BATBC continued to decline, tumbling over 18 per cent or Tk 140 each in the past two weeks to close at Tk 606.40 on Wednesday.
According to a recent DSE web post, the National Board of Revenue has issued a Tk 24,371 million demand for VAT and supplementary duties from BATBC following a High Court ruling.
The company has filed an appeal against this ruling with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court and obtained a stay on the matter.
"Investors are not sure whether the money has to be paid or not, so there was an impact on the stocks," said a stockbroker.
"Getting confused by the market direction, the shaky investors tend to remain on the sideline and were reluctant to make fresh investments in stocks," commented EBL Securities.
Major sectors suffered losses with food & allied saw the highest loss of 3.12 per cent, followed by engineering with 2.08 per cent, power 0.90 per cent, telecom 0.87 per cent, financial institutions 0.80 per cent, pharma 0.73 per cent and banking 0.24 per cent.
Losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 375 issues traded, 246 ended lower, 89 closed higher and 40 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Beximco was the most traded stock with shares worth Tk 1.49 billion changing hands, followed by Orion Pharma (Tk 543 million), IFIC Bank (Tk 493 million), BATBC (Tk 440 million) and Delta Life Insurance (Tk 352 million).
Bangladesh Lamps was the day's top gainer, rising 9.95 per cent while Alif Manufacturing Company was the worst lower, losing 7.05 per cent.
A total number of 186,971 trades were executed in the day's trading session with a trading volume of 280.91 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of DSE stood at Tk 5,509 billion on Wednesday, down from Tk 5,559 billion in the previous session.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also ended sharply lower with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -losing 216 points to settle at 20,187 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX - shedding 129 points to close at 12,127.
Of the issues traded, 201 declined, 59 advanced and 28 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port-city bourse traded 11.05 million shares and mutual fund units with a turnover value of Tk 312 million.
[email protected]
