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Stocks extend losses amid poor turnover

The DSE prime index slumps 256 points in nine days


FE Report | May 15, 2018 00:00:00


Stocks extended the losing streak for the nine straight sessions Monday amid sluggish turnover as investors mostly refrained from injecting fresh funds into the market ahead of Ramadan.

Analysts said the ongoing pessimism coupled with disappointing earnings results kept investors mostly inactive, taking the market in the red zone further.

They said the institutional investors mostly refrained from injecting fresh funds into the market observing the market movement carefully amid ongoing earnings declarations and ahead of national budget.

Meanwhile, Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) signed the much-talked-about share purchase agreement with the Chinese consortium, comprising Shenzhen Stock Exchange and Shanghai Stock Exchange, Monday for making the latter its strategic partner.

The share purchase agreement was signed at a city hotel in presence of Finance Minister A M A Muhith. But, the news failed to make any positive impact on trading.

The trading started with optimism as the prime index added 34 points, but the final hour selling spree led the bourse to close in a flat note.

Finally, the DSEX ended more than 1.0 point lower while CSE All Share Price Index fell 53 points at closing.

DSEX, core index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,557, shedding 1.10 points or 0.02 per cent over the previous session. DSEX lost about 256 points or 4.40 per cent in the past nine consecutive trading sessions.

"The cautious investors remained on profit booking mood, especially on food, fuel & power and engineering sectors' stocks while bank, financial institutions and life insurance sectors gained investors' attention," commented International Leasing Securities, a stockbroker, in its market analysis.

Participation from the investors stayed shaky due to ongoing bearish trend of the market, said the stockbroker.

The DSE Shariah Index also saw a fractional loss of 0.60 point or 0.04 per cent to close at 1,300. However, the DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 0.50 points or 0.02 per cent to finish at 2,076 points.

Bearish sentiment also reflected on the trading activities as total turnover on the DSE stood at Tk 3.31 billion, which was more than 12 per cent lower than the previous day's Tk 3.78 billion.

The number of losers and gainers were almost same as out of 339 issues traded, 135 closed lower, 134 closed higher and 70 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.

Social Islami Bank was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 6.58 per cent while Modern Dyeing was the day's worst loser, shedding 6.89 per cent.

The port city bourse CSE also closed lower with its CSE All Share Price Index - CAPSI- shedding 53 points to settle at 17142 and Selective Categories Index - CSCX - falling 32 points to finish at 10,362 points.

The losers beat the gainers as 108 issues closed lower, 78 higher and 40 remained unchanged on the CSE.

The port city bourse traded 6.85 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 180 million in turnover.

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