Stocks dip amid low turnover

Stocks returned to the red territory Tuesday as investors went on late hours selling spree amid lower-than-expected earning declarations of some listed companies.

Brokers said the market backed to the red as many listed companies quarterly earnings data failed to meet the investors' expectation as some investors are analysing the monetary policy statement (MPS).

Some 37 listed companies disclosed their un-audited second quarter (Q2) earnings for October-December period of 2017 Tuesday. Of them, earnings of 19 companies declined while 18 increased in October-December quarter of 2017 compared to the same quarter in the previous year.

"Selling frenzy in several large-cap issues, mostly from telecom, engineering, fuel & power, pharmaceutical and banking sectors contributed the plunge in indices," said an analyst, at a leading brokerage firm.

Grameenphone (GP), the largest market cap listed company's share price fell 1.04 per cent to close at Tk 505 while second largest Square Pharma's share closed at Tk 327.10, losing 0.88 per cent.

Country’s second bourse, CSE also returned to lower with CSE All Share Price Index - CAPSI- losing 89 points to settle at 18,955 and selective Categories Index - CSCX - falling 52 points to finish at 11,450.

Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 128 issues closed lower, 66 ended higher and 39 remained unchanged on the CSE.

The port city bourse traded 6.43 million shares and mutual fund units worth nearly Tk 322 million in turnover.

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