Stocks see steep decline amid political unrest

FE Report | Published: February 03, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Stocks tumbled for the consecutive fourth session Monday as ongoing political unrest hit the investors' confidence.
The market opened with a free fall and downturn continued till the market closure amid volatile trading. DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) went down by 36.52 points or 0.78 points to close at 4,618.46 points.
The two other indices also saw steep decline. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips plunged 17.92 points or 1.03 per cent to close at 1,705.62 points. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) shed 8.18 points or 0.74 per cent to close at 1,091.27 points.
Turnover on DSE stood at Tk 2.26 billion, registering an increase of 22.82 per cent over the previous session's one month lowest value of Tk 1.84 billion.
The investors' attention was mostly focused on power, banks and textiles - the sectors that accounted for 13.9 per cent, 12.2 per cent and 10.4 per cent respectively of the day's total turnover value.
"Investors' confidence remained shaky amid ongoing political unrest," said International Leasing Securities, in its daily market analysis.
Panicky investors went for aggressive selling pressure in earlier trading session. However, opportunists' investors crowded in the later part of trading session to take position as they believed recent bearish momentum has created some impetus in undervaluation in stocks, the International Leasing added.
LankaBangla Securities said: "Market continued to fall as investors remained tensed about political front. It was another difficult day as index extended loss further".
Trading started with steep fall in index hitting the day's low below 4,600-mark. As favourable set of quarterly earnings came out in last three trading sessions, some buyers showed buying interest in last hour, though in cautious mood, said the stock broker.
IDLC Investments said: "The session started with a morning panic which caused sell pressure snatching 80.6 points, directly from the broad index at first hour".
However, investors continued balancing between ongoing political gridlock and lucrative prices at some fundamentally strong stocks, putting slight level of buy pressure and settling DSEX above 4,600 points level, the merchant bank said.
"Overall, sentiment didn't improve and continued slashing investor's confidence. Consequently, turnover remained low at Tk 2.26 billion," the merchant bank added.
"Investor pessimism continues, as the market fell for the fourth consecutive session," said BRAC EPL, a stock brokerage.
In the financial sector - banks closed flat in green and NBFIs advanced by 0.97 per cent. All the other major sectors closed lower. Cement posted heavy loss of 1.78 per cent. Food and allied sector lost 1.58 per cent.
Fuel and power and pharmaceuticals also retraced in the session by 0.88 per cent and 0.11 per cent. Telecommunication closed flat in red losing 0.05 per cent.
The losers took a lead over the gainers out of 309 issues traded, 180 declined, 93 advanced and 36 remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
Activities increased in the major bourse (DSE) where volume and trade were up by 16.39 per cent and 9.58 per cent respectively. A total number of 0.065 million trades were executed with trading volume of 61.24 million securities.
The market capitalisation on DSE stood at Tk 3,127.86 billion against Tk 3,140.82 billion in the previous session.
GP was the most traded stock with shares worth Tk 109 million changing hands followed by Lafarge Surma Cement, CVO Petrochemical, Square Pharma and C&A Textiles.
AIBL First Mutual Fund National was the day's top gainer, posting a rise of 9.80 per cent while Modern Dyeing was the day's worst loser, plunging 6.35 per cent.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended lower for the fourth day with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX - lost 52.21 points to close at 8,562.31 points.
Losers beat gainers 147 to 62, with 32 issues remaining unchanged at the port city bourse that traded 6.86 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover value of Tk 187.84 million.
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