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Stocks plunge further amid panic selling

Investor confidence on the wane


FE Report | October 11, 2019 00:00:00


Stocks tumbled further to a nearly three-year low on Thursday, as investors continued to dump their holdings amid fears of a further slide.

Extending the losing streak for the fourth consecutive session, the DSEX, the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled 1.07 per cent or 52.03 points lower at 4810.21.

The figure is the lowest since November 30 in 2016 when the index closed at 4801.24.

On Thursday, the market opened the session flat but the DSEX soon started to decline and the trend continued until mid-session.

A recovery stance was observed during the mid-session but it failed to sustain its strength.

Two other indices of the Dhaka bourse also closed lower. The Shariah-based index, DSES, fell 1.11 per cent or 12.49 points to end at 1111.36 while the DS30 index -- comprising blue chip securities -- declined 1.18 per cent or 20.36 points to finish at 1704.54 points.

The losers took the lead over gainers, as out of 353 issues traded, 271 issues declined and 59 advanced while 23 issues remained unchanged on the DSE.

According to the International Leasing Securities, the extended bearish vibe in the market kept the investors worried and prompted them to offload shares to avoid further losses on their portfolios.

"Notable selling of shares in almost all the sectors contributed to the big fall in indices. Trading activities has remained almost flat over last session," it added.

The day's turnover stood at above Tk 3.27 billion, up 2.15 per cent over the previous session, and ten most traded issues accounted for around 36.1 per cent of the total turnover.

"Both the retail and institutional investors are yet to regain confidence on the market's ability to make a turnaround," according to a market review by the EBL Securities.

Amidst the downtrend, a section of investors, however, continued to rebalance their portfolios ahead of the earning declarations of June-ending companies, it said.

Investors' participation was mostly concentrated on pharmaceuticals and chemicals sector which grabbed 22 per cent of the market turnover, followed by engineering (20.60 per cent), textile (8.0 per cent), and banking (6.9 per cent) sectors.

The mutual fund sectors saw the highest price correction of 3.4 per cent, followed by engineering sector (2.2 per cent), financial institutions (1.9 per cent), fuel & power (1.6 per cent), textile (1.6 per cent), telecommunications (0.9 per cent), banking (0.6 per cent) and pharmaceuticals & chemicals (0.5 per cent).

Jute was the only sector which advanced 3.8 per cent.

The National Tubes topped the chart of most traded stocks, generating a turnover of Tk 241 million followed by Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (Tk 132 million), Wata Chemicals (Tk 126 million), Atlas Bangladesh (Tk 107 million) and Silco Pharmaceuticals (Tk 76 million).

The day's top gainer was ML Dyeing, the price of which jumped 10 per cent to close at Tk 28.60 each.

Al-Haj Textile emerged as the worst loser for the second consecutive session. Its share price closed at Tk 38.70 each with a loss of Tk 9.70 per cent.

Meanwhile, the broad index of Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) declined 1.0 per cent or 148.69 points to close at 14655.41.

Of 239 issues traded on the CSE, 183 declined, 34 advanced and 22 remained unchanged.

The turnover stood at above Tk 123.81 million.

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