Stocks witnessed a major correction Monday with key index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) once again falling below 5,700-mark amid selling spree.
Market operators said the retail investors went for selling spree to avoid further loss while the institutional investors could not support the market more because of persistent liquidity shortage.
"Ambiguity over the Dhaka bourse's share sales to strategic partner and concerns over ongoing liquidity crisis continued to take toll on the market," said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm, seeking anonymity.
He noted that selling of shares mostly from non-bank financial institutions, banking and engineering sectors contributed to the fall of indices as these three sectors lost more than 1.0 per cent each.
Following the previous day's flat movement, the DSE and the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) opened on downward trend which sustained till end of the session with no sign of reversal.
Finally, DSEX, the benchmark index of the DSE, went down nearly 58 points or 1.01 per cent to settle at 5,663.
The two other indices of the premier bourse also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 13.50 points to finish at 2,105 and DSES (Shariah) index slumped 12.12 points to settle at 1,337.
However, turnover reached Tk 5.12 billion, hitting more than one month high, riding on Summit Power's block transaction of Tk 2.59 billion.
As per recent disclosure, Summit Corporation, one of the corporate sponsors of the Summit Power, purchased more than 70 million shares of Tk 37 each from Summit Holdings in the block market which assisted the day's total turnover.
According to International Leasing Securities, the shaky investors started selling spree from the beginning of the session and continued till the end of the trading session.
The stockbroker noted that financial institutions and banking sectors witnessed the sell-offs as the investors were losing confidence amid ongoing liquidity crisis in the financial market.
The major sectors showed negative performance with non-bank financial institutions posting the highest correction of 1.76 per cent, followed by banking sector 1.51 per cent and engineering 1.17 per cent.
The telecommunication, pharmaceuticals, power and food & allied sectors also lost 0.71 per cent, 0.41 per cent, 0.23 per cent and 0.07 per cent respectively.
Prices of 77 per cent traded issues declined as out of 336 issues traded, 258 closed lower, 50 ended higher and 28 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Recently listed Queen South Textile topped the day's turnover chart with shares worth nearly Tk 130 million changing hands, followed by Fortune Shoes, Monno Ceramic Industries, LankaBangla Finance and Apex Foods.
SEML Lecture Equity Management Fund was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 9.46 per cent while United Finance was the day's worst loser, losing 11.76 per cent following its price adjustment after record date.
Port city bourse CSE also saw major correction with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - slumping by 188 points to settle at 17,472 and Selective Categories Index - CSCX - shedding 113 points to finish at 10,550.
Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 176 issues closed lower, 34 ended higher and 19 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse traded 5.10 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 123 million in turnover.
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