Stocks witnessed yet another downbeat session on Tuesday, extending the losing streak for the fourth straight session, as investors continued their selling binge.
Market operators said the premier bourse witnessed another downward trend amid a continuous selling pressure on banking stocks.
The banking sector posted the highest loss of 1.47 per cent with prices of 25 banks, out of 30, closing lower.
"The Dhaka Stock Exchange's strategic partner news failed to lift the prices of stocks," said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.
The Chinese consortium, which bought 25 per cent stake of DSE, formally became a strategic partner of the prime bourse as share acquisition and fund transfer process completed on Tuesday.
The market opened on positive note and the prime index of the major bourse rose about 17 points within first 15 minutes of trading, but rest of the session went down steadily.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 37.61 points or 0.67 per cent to settle at 5,552.
This downward shift in the index is mainly driven by significant negative changes in most of the large-cap sectors like banking, power and food, said LankaBangla Securities.
The two other indices-the DS30 index and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) -also closed in the red.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 9.33 points to finish at 1,950 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 3.37 points to close at 1,271.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, stood at Tk 7.16 billion, which was 1.56 per cent higher than the previous day's turnover of Tk 7.08 billion.
According to International Leasing Securities, bank, mutual fund and fuel & power sectors' stock saw liquidation, taking the prime index in the negative zone.
Apart from banking, the fuel & power sector also lost 0.87 per cent, followed by food & allied 0.36 per cent and engineering 0.29 per cent.
Telecommunication posted the highest gain of 0.53 per cent, followed by financial institutions 0.22 per cent and pharmaceuticals 0.05 per cent.
Share prices of 68 per cent traded issues on the DSE trading floor declined as out of 334 issues, 228 closed lower, 64 ended higher and 42 issues remained unchanged.
A total number of 132,606 trades were executed in the day's trading session on the DSE with trading volume of 170.37 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE came down to Tk 3,952 billion on the day which was Tk 3,967 billion in the previous session.
Khulna Power Company topped the DSE turnover chart for the third day in a row with 7.55 million shares worth Tk 654 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were Confidence Cement, BBS Cables, Nahee Aluminum Composite Panel and Aman Feed.
Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company was the best performer for the second day, posting a gain of 9.92 per cent while Savar Refractories was the worst loser, losing 9.89 per cent.
The port city bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange, closed lower with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - losing 133 points to settle at 17,070 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -slumping by 80 points to finish at 10,338.
The losers beat gainers as 166 issues closed lower, 56 ended higher, with 26 issues remaining unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 8.29 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 263 million in turnover.
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