Stocks suffered losses on Sunday, snapping a six-day rally, as the risk-averse investors opted for selling shares amid growing tension over new coronavirus variant Omicron.
The core index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange crossed the 7,000-mark soon after the market opened, gaining 42 points. But could not sustain that level amid heavy sell-offs on major sector stocks.
Finally, DSEX, the prime index of the DSE, went down by 54.83 points or 0.78 per cent to settle at 6,932, after gaining 256 points in the past six consecutive sessions.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, also dropped to Tk 14.61 billion, which was 13.2 per cent lower than the previous day's tally of Tk 16.83 billion.
Market analysts said stocks broke a six-day bull run as the risk-averse investors went on selling binge on quick gaining stocks amid rising trend of new coronavirous variant Omicron.
The market under sale pressure as Omicron variant stoked fears of a fresh hit to the economy and drove investors out of riskier assets, said a merchant banker, seeking anonymity.
The risk-averse investors booked profit on major sector stocks after a recent price surge, according to a leading broker.
He noted that overall downward pressure intensified as new variant virus worries further hit investors' confidence.
The risk-averse investors went on a selling spree taking the equity indices in negative territory because share prices were at a lucrative level owing to the soaring market in recent days, commented EBL Securities.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh has reported three more people died, 1,491 new Covid-19 cases with jumping of the current positivity rate to 6.78 per cent on Sunday.
Two other indices also ended lower with the DS30 index, comprising blue chips, shed 23.96 points to finish at 2,579 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 4.01 points to close at 1,468.
Top negative index contributors were Robi, BATBC, Beximco, ICB and BRAC Bank, jointly contributing 31 points fall to the DSEX, according to amarstock.com, a market data analyst.
Major sectors faced corrections with the financial institutions saw the highest loss of 1.50 per cent, followed by telecom (0.98 per cent), banking (0.96 per cent), food (0.53 per cent), power (0.49 per cent), engineering (0.35 per cent), and pharmaceutical (0.34 per cent).
Losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 378 issues traded, 248 declined, 98 advanced and 32 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 234,124 trades were executed in the day's trading session with a trading volume of 311.52 million shares and mutual fund units.
Beximco topped the turnover list with shares worth Tk 1.04 billion changing hands, followed by Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (Tk 805 million), Delta Life Insurance (Tk 602 million), LafargeHolcim (Tk 554 million) and Power Grid Company (Tk 493 million).
Khulna Printing & Packaging was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 10 per cent while Shyampur Sugar Mills was the worst loser, losing 7.25 per cent.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) ended sharply lower with its All Shares Price Index (CASPI)-shedding 183 points to close at 20,311 while the Selective Categories Index - CSCX-- losing 112 points to close at 12,198.
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