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Profit-taking affects market

DSEX sheds 328 points in Oct


FE REPORT | November 01, 2021 00:00:00


Stocks finished lower on Sunday, snapping a three-day gaining streak, as risk-averse investors went on late hours selling binge on major sector issues.

Following the previous day's marginal gain, the market started on marginally higher, but last hour heavy sale pressure wiped-out more than 61 points from the key index.

DSEX, the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down 61.41 points or 0.86 per cent to settle at 7,000.94, after gaining 177 points in the past three consecutive days.

Some big-cap stocks such as British American Tobacco, Walton, United Power, LafargeHolcim and ICB contributed more than 37 points fall of DSEX jointly, according to amarstock.com.

Meanwhile, DSEX lost more than 328 points or 4.48 per cent and Tk 220 billion was eroded as market-cap during the month of October.

Two other indices also edged lower on Sunday with the DS30 index, comprising blue chips, dropped 18.31 points to finish at 2,620 and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) fell 8.89 points to close at 1,470.

Turnover, another important indicator of the market, stood at Tk 16.37 billion on the prime bourse, which was 5.05 per cent lower than the previous day's tally of Tk 17.24 billion.

Market analysts said stocks plunged, triggered by the profit booking by retail investors in the well performing and large-cap stocks.

"The market fell as some investors sold large-cap shares in the later part of the session," said a merchant banker.

Many investors also rebalanced their portfolios based on listed companies' recent disclosure on earnings and dividend declarations, he said.

A good number of listed large-cap companies disclosed quarterly earnings and dividend declarations on Sunday, including Bata Shoe, Berger Paints, ACI, Robi, Olympic Industries, Matin Spinning Mills and AMCL (PRAN).

"Dividend and quarter-end earnings declarations of a good number of companies' during the trading hours also failed to attract investors," said a leading broker.

According to EBL Securities, sell-off witnessed across sectoral issues as investors offloaded shares to rebalance their portfolio amidst the market downturn.

Most of the major sectors witnessed correction with general insurance saw the highest loss of 2.80 per cent, followed by food with 1.50 per cent, power 1.40 per cent, engineering 1.20 per cent, banking 1.10 per cent, financial institutions 0.90 per cent and textile 0.70 per cent.,

On the other hand, telecom and pharma posted gain of 1.10 per cent and 0.40 per cent respectively. Losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 375 issues traded, 226 declined, 122 advanced and 27 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.

A total number of 255,170 trades were executed in the day's trading session with a trading volume of 423.22 million securities.

The market-cap of DSE also dropped to Tk 5,595 billion, from Tk 5,635 billion in the previous day.

Beximco was the most-traded stocks with shares worth Tk 1.20 billion changing hands, closely followed by IFIC Bank (995 million), Saif Powertec (Tk 552 million), Orion Pharma (Tk 448 million), and Fortune Shoes (Tk 445 million).

The port-city bourse CSE also fell sharply with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -losing 148 points to settle at 20,480 and Selective Categories Index - CSCX - shedding 87 points to finish at 12,305.

Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 174 issues closed lower, 101 ended higher and 24 remained unchanged.

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