Stocks extended the losing streak for the third straight session on Thursday, as worried investors continued their selling binge on shares of major sectors.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 26.80 points or 0.56 per cent to settle at 4,710 over the previous day.
Market analysts said investor confidence got a battering again, which triggered sell-off on large-cap sectors, especially pharma, telecom, power and banking sectors.
Large-cap stocks like Grameenphone, Square Pharma, Renata, United Power and BATBC led the market fall, dragging down 26 points of DSEX jointly, said a leading broker.
He noted that investors are still suffering from a confidence crisis as the market remained volatile over the last ten months.
The poor financial disclosures of some listed companies also tempted the shaky investors to offload shares from most of the major sectors, he added.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, lost 8.80 points to finish at 1,638 and the DSE Shariah Index shed 6.94 points to close at 1,080.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, also fell to Tk 3.19 billion, which was more than 18 per cent lower than the previous day's turnover of Tk 3.90 billion.
International Leasing Securities said the market extended losses as poor earnings declarations of several companies failed to meet the investors' expectations.
Trading activities fell more than 18 over the last session as most investors remained on the sidelines, said the stockbroker.
The stockbroker also noted that worried investors liquidated their holdings from pharma, telecom, power and bank sector stocks, taking the index down.
The pharma sector saw the highest loss, plunging by 1.47 per cent, followed by telecom with 1.10 per cent, power 0.60 per cent, banking 0.56 per cent, engineering 0.18 per cent, and financial institutions 0.10 per cent.
Only, food and allied sector advanced 0.03 per cent.
Losers took a modest lead over the gainers, as out of 345 issues traded, 154 closed lower, 132 ended higher and 59 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total of 100,565 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 114.80 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE also fell to Tk 3,549 billion on Thursday from Tk 3,568 billion in the previous session.
Renata Ltd topped the turnover chart with shares worth Tk 141 million changing hands, followed by National Tubes, Square Pharma, Fortune Shoes, and Sonar Bangla Insurance.
National Feed Mills was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 9.88 per cent while Khulna Printing & Packaging was the worst loser, shedding 8.49 per cent.
The port city's bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange, also ended lower, with its All Shares Price Index -- (CASPI) -- losing 89 points to close at 14,327 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX - falling 52 points to finish at 8708.
Here too, losers beat gainers as 133 issues closed lower, 80 ended higher and 27 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 38.18 million shares and mutual fund units worth nearly Tk 1.11 billion in turnover.
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