Stocks tumbled on Tuesday, the first session of the new fiscal year (FY) 2019-20, as investors were on selling binge.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 36.69 points or 0.67 per cent to finish at 5,384.
The parliament passed the budget that brought down the tax on retained earnings and reserves of listed companies to 10 per cent from the proposed 15 per cent.
The government also relaxed conditions for holding on to retained earnings: a company has been allowed to keep 70 per cent of its profits in a year as retained earnings.
Market analysts said investors expressed mixed reaction on the approved budget as some argued that the step would discourage business expansion while some said the retail investors will be benefited.
EBL Securities said most of the investors were in exit mode after availing tax rebate, so most of the large-cap stocks witnessed price correction.
Grameenphone, Square Pharma, BATBC, Brac Bank and Olympic Industries collectively contributed more than 25 points fall of index.
The market opened on negative note and the downturn continued until end of the session amid modest volatility.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 16.51 points to finish at 1,912 and the DSE Shariah Index shed 9.52 points to close at 1,235.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, stood at Tk 4.82 billion, which was 2.77 per cent higher than the previous day's turnover of Tk 4.69 billion.
The stockbroker noted that the risk-averse investors exerted selling pressure on sector specific stocks, particularly from food, banking non-bank financial institutions and telecommunication sectors.
Food sector booked the highest loss of 1.47 per cent, followed by banking with 1.24 per cent, telecom 1.08 per cent, non-bank financial institutions 0.89 per cent and pharmaceuticals 0.87 per cent.
Only engineering and power sectors gained 1.04 per cent and 0.12 per cent respectively.
Runner Automobiles topped the turnover chart with 1.34 million shares worth Tk 137 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were National Polymer, United Power, Bashundhara Papers Mills and Esquire Knit Composite.
A total number of 128,600 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 146.23 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also fell to Tk 3,980 billion on Tuesday, from Tk 3,998 billion in the previous session.
The losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 353 issues traded, 174 declined, 143 advanced and 36 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Runner Automobiles was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 9.96 cent while SEML FBLSL Growth Fund was the worst loser, losing 7.40 per cent.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange, also ended lower with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -shedding 122 points to settle at 16,512 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -losing 74 points to finish at 10,010.
Here too, the losers beat gainers, as 125 issues closed lower, 115 higher and 23 remained unchanged on the CSE trading floor.
The port city bourse traded 12.85 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 541 million in turnover.
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