Stocks extended losing streak for the fourth consecutive session Wednesday with turnover dropped significantly as market sentiment was gripped by ongoing political unrest across the country.
The presence of investors was also thin on the trading floor because of ongoing blockade enforced by BNP-led 18-party alliance and many investors executed trade over phone.
The market started with a positive note and the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange - DSEX was 20 points up during the first 45 minutes of the session but went down sharply for rest of the session, eventually ended lower.
At the end of the session, the prime index of the DSE - DSEX went down by 30.46 points or 0.71 per cent to close the session at 4,240.13 points.
The DS30 index, including blue chips also lost 9.81points or 0.66 per cent to close at 1,468.46 points.
Turnover, the most important indicator for the market came down to Tk 4.83 billion, down by 19.0 per cent over the previous session's value of Tk 5.94 billion.
The consolidation in market continued for the fourth consecutive trading session as investors are eyeing on recent economic slowdown, said LankaBangla Securities, a leading stock broker, in its regular market analysis.
"Market sentiment has been gripped by ongoing political unrest that is narrowing the investment in manufacturing sectors and affecting the export-import of the country," said the stock broker.
"Export order for Ready Made Garment (RMG), which accounted for 80 per cent of the total export, dropped by 30-40 per cent in first half of the current fiscal year due to number of ominous incident and political confrontation," the stock broker added.
"Another dull session passed over the bourse amid directionless trading behavior from the investors," said IDLC Investments, a leading merchant bank.
Moreover, turnover plunged about 19.0 per cent, as market could not offer profitable prices, said the investments banker.
Quite akin to recent sessions, market was upbeat at the beginning, but quickly started losing momentum as session progressed. Negativity gradually overcame optimism, forcing all sectors and all Cap Classes to go red, said the merchant bank.
Coupled with demoralized investors' sentiment, placement of CVO Petrochemical Refinery and Rahima Food placed in 'Z' category caused some pessimism in overall food and allied sector, which contributed to it's being among the top losers, the merchant bank.
Meanwhile, after rewarding investors in last few days, Micro Cap turned out to be the worst performer of the Cap Classes, Wednesday, it added.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 296 issues traded, 209 declined, 56 advanced and 31remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
All the sectors ended in red. Among the major sectors, fuel & power lost the most with 0.38 per cent loss, followed by pharmaceuticals 0.34 per cent. NBFIs and telecommunications retraced 0.19 per cent and 0.10 per cent respectively. Banks closed almost flat with 0.04 per cent loss.
Activities also decreased in the prime bourse. A total of 0.119 million trades were executed with 123.51 million shares and mutual fund units were trading volume.
The market capitalization of the DSE stood at Tk 2,634.09 billion against Tk 2,647.91 billion in the previous session.
Generation Next Fashion dominated the top turnover chart with shares worth Tk 364.67 million changing hands followed by LankaBangla Finance, Argon Denim, Golden Son and Delta Life Insurance.
The textile sector saw the highest liquidity, accounted for 27.5 per cent of total market turnover and five of its issues featuring in the top ten traded shares.
Sinobangla Industries was the day's highest gainer, posting a rise of 8.39 per cent while Rahima Food was the day's worst losers, slumping by 10 per cent.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower, with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX lost 70.32 points to close at 8,326.97 points.
Losers beat gainers 162 to 37, with 20 issues remaining unchanged at the port city bourse that traded 16.32 million shares and mutual fund units, turnover value of Tk 581.32 million.
