Stocks slipped back into the red on Thursday after a single-day break, as cautious investors went on a selling binge, particularly on banking issues, in the final hour of the trading session.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled 31.64 points or 0.67 per cent lower at 4,671.
Market analysts said wary investors dumped shares of major sectors such as banking, engineering and non-bank financial institutions, taking the market into the red zone.
Prolonged bearish trend in the market is still haunting the investor sentiment while soaring non-performing loan coupled with falling portfolio investments made them upset, said an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.
The news that stock brokers have submitted a work plan for investment of Tk 100 billion funds, sought earlier from the government to support the country's ailing market, also failed to boost the investor confidence, he said.
The market opened on a positive note and the key index gained more than 21 points within the first 30 minutes of trading but failed to keep the momentum as the session progressed.
According to EBL Securities, recent market volatility coupled with soaring non-performing loan and liquidity crunch dented investor confidence further, which worsened the overall market performance.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, lost 11.80 points to finish at 1,605 and the DSE Shariah Index shed 5.56 points to close at 1,055.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, also fell to Tk 4.32 billion, which was 6.50 per cent lower than the previous day's turnover of Tk 4.62 billion.
International Leasing Securities said the market went back to the negative territory amid profit-booking sell pressure from the shaky investors.
The stockbroker noted that banking, financial institutions, textile, power, engineering and pharma sectors' stocks saw liquidation, which dragged the prime index down.
Among the major sectors, banking witnessed the highest loss of 1.09 per cent, followed by engineering (0.79 per cent), non-bank financial institutions (0.56 per cent), power (0.35 per cent) and pharma (0.33 per cent).
The telecom posted a 0.13 per cent gain while food sector remained flat.
Losers took a modest lead over the gainers, as out of 346 issues traded, 192 closed lower, 106 ended higher and 48 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total of 127,081 trades were executed in the day's trading session, with trading volume standing at 177.40 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE also fell to Tk 3,523 billion on Thursday from Tk 3,537 billion in the previous session.
SK Trims & Industries topped the turnover chart with shares worth Tk 159 million changing hands, closely followed by Saiham Cotton Mills, Sonar Bangla Insurance, Indo-Bangla Pharma and Paramount Insurance.
RD Food was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 9.32 per cent while Familytex BD was the worst loser, shedding 11.11 per cent following its 'no' dividend declaration news.
The port city's bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange, also ended lower with its All Shares Price Index -- (CASPI) -- shedding 91 points to close at 14,203 and the Selective Categories Index -- CSCX -- losing 54 points to finish at 8,622.
Here too, the losers beat the gainers, as 141 issues closed lower, 82 ended higher and 26 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 10.35 million shares and mutual fund units worth nearly Tk 251 million.
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