Stocks extended the losing streak for the third straight sessions on Wednesday, as investors kept selling shares of major sectors amid no sign of market recovery.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 12.71 points or 0.23 per cent to finish at 5,372.
Although the government brought some changes to the budgetary measures for the capital market, they failed to make any positive impact on the market.
The parliament passed the budget for fiscal year 2019-20, bringing down the tax rate on retained earnings and reserves of listed companies to 10 per cent from the proposed 15 per cent.
The government also relaxed some conditions for holding onto retained earnings -- a company has been allowed to keep 70 per cent of its profits in a year as retained earnings.
Market analysts said the changes in the budget drew mixed reactions from the investors who think that tax might force some companies to declare cash dividend but the tax might be a burden for some sectors, including the banking and financial institutions sectors.
A leading broker said the latest gas price hike made a negative impact on the manufacturing companies' shares as the price hike is likely to dent their profits.
On Wednesday, the market opened on a positive note and the key index rose about 14 points within the first 15 minutes of trading. But the index went down steadily in the remaining hours of the session.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, shed 2.91 points to finish at 1,909 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 1.18 points to close at 1,233.
According to the International Leasing Securities, lack of confidence among the investors regarding the future market direction fuelled the sell pressure.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, stood at Tk 5.07 billion, up 5.18 per cent from the previous day's turnover of Tk 4.82 billion.
The non-bank financial institutions posted the highest loss of 1.78 per cent, followed by banking sector (0.65 per cent), telecommunications (0.33 per cent), power (0.27 per cent) and food (0.26 per cent).
Only pharmaceuticals and engineering sectors inched up by 0.02 per cent and 0.01 per cent respectively.
The losers took a modest lead over the gainers, as out of 353 issues traded, 177 declined, 126 advanced and 50 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
National Life Insurance topped the turnover chart with 629,232 shares worth Tk 151 million changing hands.
A total of 31,744 trades were executed in the day's trading session, with trading volume standing at 135.46 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also fell to Tk 3,970 billion on Wednesday, from Tk 3,980 billion in the previous session.
Dhaka Insurance was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 9.79 cent while SEML Lecture Equity Management Fund was the worst loser, shedding 7.05 per cent.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange, also ended lower with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - losing 46 points to settle at 16,465 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX - falling 27 points to finish at 9,983.
Here too, the losers beat gainers, as 132 issues closed lower, 98 higher and 38 remained unchanged on the CSE trading floor.
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