Stocks kept the losing streak on Tuesday with core index of the prime bourse falling below 4,700-mark again, as investors continued their selling binge.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 37.24 points or 0.78 per cent to close at 4,697, after losing more than 24 points in the previous day.
Market analysts said worried investors went on selling spree on large-cap issues like Grameenphone and Square Pharma, taking the market in the red zone.
Five-large-cap issues -GP, Square Pharma, Brac Bank, Olympic Industries and BATBC-- jointly contributed 20 points fall of DSEX.
Prolonged bearish trend in the market is still affecting the investors' sentiment and soaring non-performing loan coupled with falling portfolio investments made them upset, said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.
Two other indices also finished lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, lost 11.79 points to finish at 1,617 and the DSE Shariah Index shed 7.04 points to close at 1,060.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, also fell to Tk 4.12 billion, which was 15 per cent lower than the previous day's turnover of Tk 4.82 billion.
According to International Leasing Securities, investors kept on profit taking sell-pressure on large-cap sectors shares.
EBL Securities said the market fell as investors continued to sell their holdings fearing further correction.
The stockbroker noted that the market faced sharp correction as investors engaged in selling of their share mostly of banking, telecommunication and pharmaceuticals sectors issues, which contributed to the market fall.
Among the major sectors, banking witnessed the highest loss of 1.50 per cent, followed by telecom with 1.20 per cent, engineering 1.10 per cent, food 0.90 per cent, pharma 0.80 per cent and power 0.10 per cent.
Only cement sector gained 3.10 per cent riding on sector heavyweight LafargeHolcim which gained 6.09 per cent.
Losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 349 issues traded, 199 closed lower, 118 ended higher and 32 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 125,338 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 160.82 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE also fell to Tk 3,537 billion on Tuesday, from Tk 3,558 billion in the previous session.
Zaheen Spinning was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 9.78 per cent while Samorita Hospital was the worst loser, losing 7.82 per cent.
The port city's bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange, also kept losing streak with its All Shares Price Index (CASPI)-shedding 107 points to close at 14,305 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -falling 64 points to finish at 8,685.
Here too, the losers beat gainers, as 127 issues closed lower, 78 ended higher and 32 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 9.52 million shares and mutual fund units worth nearly Tk 222 million in turnover.
babulfexpress@gmail.com