Stocks witnessed a sharp decline Sunday and key index of the prime bourse came down to one-month low as the investors went for selling spree amid countrywide strike enforced by Jamaat-e-Islami.
Despite the countrywide shutdown, the market opened with a positive mood, but could not sustain as the session progressed. Eventually, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) ended at 5,105.22 points, shedding 68.01 points or 1.31per cent.
The other two indices also closed in the red. The DS30, comprising blue chips lost 31.38 points or 1.60 per cent to close at 1,918.09 points. The DSE Shariah Index dropped 15.30 points or 1.25 per cent to close at 1,204.73 points.
The strong sell pressure kept the total turnover slightly upbeat and amounted to Tk 7.32 billion, registering an increase of 1.10 per cent over the previous session's value of Tk 7.24 billion.
The investors' attention was mostly concentrated on engineering, power and pharma - the sectors that accounted for 25 per cent, 22 per cent and 13 per cent respectively of the day's total turnover.
"Investors' sentiment still remains cautious and they are discounting any political risks associated with the economy," said LankaBangla Securities in an analysis.
"Market is observing some difficulties to find any direction as investors got mixed reactions about Q3 earnings registered by listed corporate entities," said the stock broker.
IDLC Investments said: "Following a number of depressed earnings, pessimism reinstated amid investors and shrank market movement".
On macroeconomic front, investors were more focused on declining deposit rate as well as increased bad loans in banking industry, said the merchant bank.
"Profit taking attitude of the investors' triggered selling pressure and upset the overall market," said International Leasing Securities in an analysis.
All the heavy-weight sectors suffered from market's setback except food and allied which edged up by 0.54 per cent. The gain is mainly attributable to BATBC and Olympic which appreciated by 0.72 per cent and 2.06 per cent respectively.
Fuel and power suffered the most with 2.17 per cent loss - followed by NBFIs and telecommunication going down by 1.71 per cent and 1.15 per cent respectively. Pharmaceuticals and banks also lost 0.83 per cent and 0.09 per cent respectively.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 306 issues traded, 204 declined, 71 advanced and 31 remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
Activities increased in the major bourse (DSE) where trade was up by 92.76 per cent, but Volume decreased by 8.25 per cent. A total of 0.255 million trades were executed in the day's trading session with 164.48 million securities of trading volume.
The total market capitalization of the DSE stood at Tk 3,373.15 billion against Tk 3,398.76 billion in the previous session.
The new issue -- Western Marine Shipyard was the most traded stock with shares worth Tk 885.33 million changing hands followed by Saif Powertec, SPCL, KPCL and BEDL.
Western Marine Shipyard was also the day's highest gainer, posting a rise of 79.14 per cent while Daffodil Computer was the day's worst loser, slumping by 24.16 per cent following its no dividend declaration.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also closed lower with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX - lost 149.03 points to close at 9,552.23 points.
Losers beat gainers 170 to 38, with 11 issues remaining unchanged at the port city bourse that traded 17.31 million shares and mutual fund units, turnover value of Tk 751.58 million.
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