Stocks ended lower for the second session Monday amid seesaw in trading as fear of continuous price fall damped down investors' interest.
The market opened with a negative mood amid choppy trading. However, in the mid-session DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, was up by 47 points, which could not sustain till the end.
At the end of the session, DSEX went down by 23.94 points or 0.48 per cent to close at 30-session low at 4,914.71 points.
The other two indices also closed in the red. The DS30, comprising blue chips, lost 7.90 points or 0.43 per cent to close at 1,807.45 points. The DSE Shariah Index fell 9.85 points or 0.85 per cent to close at 1,147.99 points.
The total turnover on the DSE came down to Tk 7.09 billion, registering a decline of 17.26 per cent over the previous day's turnover of Tk 8.57 billion.
The investors' attention was mostly concentrated on power, engineering and pharma- the sectors that accounted for 21.15 per cent, 20.75 per cent and 15.96 per cent respectively of the day's total turnover.
The market's effort to regain some footing went all in vain as the investors' sell pressure compelled the continuation of the ongoing negative stance, said International Leasing Securities in an analysis.
The market's pessimistic vibe seemed to catch up most of the newly listed stocks as they fell drastically Monday after rallying for the past few weeks, said the International Leasing.
However, large-cap stocks, which witnessed major decline in the previous day of trading, managed to stay in the investors good grace to some extent, the International Leasing said.
IDLC Investments said: "The recent chaos due to nation-wide strike and fear of continuous price fall in most of the stocks hit investors' sentiment very negatively".
Despite strong participation, the market slipped for two consecutive sessions, causing 110.4 points shed off in DSEX.
LankaBangla Securities said "Market became choppy after breaching the 'psychological' support level of 5,000."
Stocks traded green in the first half of the day's trading, but losses in the latter half erased prior gains and dragged the index to one month low.
All the major sectors ended up in the red, where 1.2 per cent and 1.1 per cent loss in cement and fuel stocks respectively hit the market most, while 1.2 per cent and 1.09 per cent rise in NBFI and telecom stocks level out some losses.
Food and allied, pharmaceuticals and banks also declined 0.70 per cent, 0.62 per cent and 0.07 per cent respectively.
Market performance was mixed with advancing stocks of 127 against 148 declining stocks and 27 remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
Activities decreased in the major bourse (DSE) where trade and volume were up by 14.59 per cent and 16.99 per cent respectively. A total of 0.143 million trades were executed in the day's trading session with 159.74 million securities of trading volume.
The total market capitalisation of the DSE stood at Tk 3,266.34 billion against Tk 3,275.29 billion in the previous session.
Western Marine Shipyard was the most traded stock for the six consecutive sessions, with shares worth Tk 564.62 million changing hands followed by DESCO, BEDL, Keya Cosmetics and Lafarge Surma Cement.
Orion Infusion was the day's highest gainer, posting a rise of 9.93 per cent while Western Marine Shipyard was the day's worst loser, slumping by 9.96 per cent.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also closed lower with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX - lost 55.90 points to close at 9,273.19 points.
Losers beat gainers 133 to 61, with 23 issues remaining unchanged at the port city bourse that traded 14.31 million shares and mutual fund units, turnover value of Tk 734.20 million.
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