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Stocks pause after four-day rise

General ins, cement, power, engineering sectors suffer most


FE REPORT | February 15, 2022 00:00:00


Stocks plummeted on Monday, snapping a four-day winning streak, as cautious investors opted for booking profit on quick-gaining issues.

The market opened on an upbeat note and the key index surpassed the 7100-mark in early trading. But, the rest of the session went down steadily amid profit booking by investors.

DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 28.78 points or 0.40 per cent to settle at 7,060, after gaining 38 points in the past four consecutive sessions.

Turnover, the most important indicator of the market, stood at Tk 12.41 billion, which was 2.67 per cent lower than the previous day's tally of Tk 12.75 billion.

Market experts said the risk-averse investors booked some profit on stocks which saw significant gain in the past few trading days, taking the market into the red territory.

As the market index crossed the 7100-mark in the early trading, some investors favoured booking profit, said a merchant banker.

The investors booked profits, particularly on general insurance, cement, power, engineering and food sector stocks, he said.

Trading activities were a bit sluggish as investors followed a cautious stance ahead of December-end earnings declarations, said a stockbroker.

Banking and life insurance sectors tried to add some points to the indices considering the upcoming annual declaration, according to International Leasing Securities.

Two other indices also edged lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, dropped 7.91 points to finish at 2,597 and the DSE Shariah Index fell 3.13 points to close at 1,519.

Major sectors faced corrections with the general insurance losing the most of 1.70 per cent, followed by cement (1.40 per cent), power (1.10 per cent), engineering (0.70 per cent), food (0.70 per cent) and financial institutions (0.50 per cent).

On the other hand, life insurance, banking and pharma sectors gained 0.60 per cent, 0.10 per cent and 0.10 per cent respectively.

Losers took a strong lead over the gainers, as out of 380 issues traded, 272 declined, 64 advanced and 44 issues remained unchanged on the DSE.

A total number of 335,461 trades were executed in the day's trading session with a trading volume of 288.82 million securities.

The market capitalisation of the DSE dropped to Tk 5,651 billion on Monday from Tk 5,671 billion in the previous session.

Fortune Shoes, which gained 4.92 per cent, was the most traded stock with shares worth over Tk 777 million changing hands, followed by Beximco (Tk 608 million), Orion Pharma (Tk 517 million), Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (Tk 504 million) and National Life Insurance (Tk 455 million).

The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -losing 70 points to settle at 20,705 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX-shedding 41 points to close at 12,432.

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