The turnover on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) hit a fresh three months low Wednesday as most of the investors were reluctant to make fresh investment in stocks.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, stood at Tk 3.53 billion on the country's premier bourse, slumping further by 8.31 per cent over previous day's mark of Tk 3.85 billion.
It was the lowest single-day transactions since December 23, 2018, when the turnover totaled a record Tk 3.53 billion.
Market analysts said institutional investors persistent their cautiousness amid liquidity crunch while small investors were not confident enough to inject fresh fund in stocks amid ongoing pessimism, taking the turnover fresh three months low.
The outcome of the meeting between DSE top brokers and prime bourse held on Monday also failed to revive investors' confidence to the market.
The ongoing pessimism coupled with lower than expected dividend declaration of some banks eroded investors' confidence to the market, said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.
He noted that instability in the banking sector coupled with lack of market triggers kept investors mostly inactive.
Along with turnover, stocks also slipped into the red Wednesday, after a single-day break, as worried investors were selling spree on major sectors' shares.
The market opened on positive note and the prime index gained about 18 points within first 15 minutes of trading. But rest of the session went down steadily.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the DSE, went down by 27.58 points or 0.49 per cent to settle at nearly three months low at 5,502.
According to International Leasing Securities, notable selling of shares was witnessed on the major sectors at the quarter-end that contributed to the fall in indices.
Two other indices-the DS30 index and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES)-also ended lower.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 11.32 points to finish at 1,968 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 4.59 points to close at 1,281.
A total number of 101,534 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 64.80 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE also declined to Tk 4,121 billion, from Tk 4,137 billion in the previous day.
Food & allied sector posted the highest loss of 1.21 per cent, followed by financial institutions with 0.95 per cent, banking 0.88 per cent, pharmaceuticals 0.31 per cent, power 0.27 per cent and telecommunication 0.23 per cent.
Only engineering sector gained 0.72 per cent.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 347 issues traded, 165 closed lower, 121 ended higher and 61 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Monno Ceramic was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 8.15 per cent while Vanguard AML BD Finance Mutual Fund One was the day's worst loser, losing 6.57 per cent.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange, ended lower with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - losing 38 points to settle at 16,858 while the Selective Categories Index - CSCX, shedding 25 points to finish at 10,212.
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