Stocks tumbled on Monday, after remaining flat in the previous day, as risk-averse investors went on heavy sell-offs on major sectors shares.
Market operators said investors dumped their holdings for booking profit on major sector stocks which saw significant gain in the past few weeks.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 51.32 points or 1.02 per cent to settle at 4,946 after four and a half hours trading.
Two other indices also drifted lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, lost 22.24 points to finish at 1,685 and the DSE Shariah Index shed 10.27 points to close at 1,112.
Turnover stood at Tk 9.65 billion, which was 8.55 per cent higher than the previous session's turnover of Tk 8.89 billion.
After hovering around 5,000 points for the last few days, stocks witnessed a sudden big fall in indices, which made investors more cautious, said a merchant banker.
He noted that many investors moved to the primary market as the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) approved a good number of initial public offerings in the past two months.
Price fall of large-cap stocks like Brac Bank, BATBC, Beximco Pharma, United Power, Grameenphone and Square Pharma played a major role behind the key index, said a leading broker.
Lack of buoyancy among the investors fueled the selling pressure in the market which contributed to the big fall in indices, commented International Leasing Securities.
However, the bargain hunters took positions in engineering and general insurance stocks, said the stockbroker.
Major sectors suffered losses with pharma and food sectors lost 1.0 per cent each, followed by banking with 0.80 per cent, power and financial institutions 0.70 per cent each and telecom sector lost 0.40 per cent.
Engineering and general insurance gained 4.10 per cent and 2.70 per cent respectively.
Losers outnumbered the gainers as out of 357 issues traded, 263 closed lower, 65 ended higher while 29 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 196,991 trades were executed in the day's trading session with a trading volume of 366.93 million shares and mutual fund units.
Walton Hi-Tech Industries topped the turnover list with shares worth Tk 503 million changing hands, followed by Beximco Pharma, Beximco, Rupali Insurance and Express Insurance.
The insurance sector continued to dominate the gainer's chart as all top 10 gainers from the insurance sector with Northern Insurance was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 9.96 per cent while Tung hai Knitting was the worst loser, losing 9.75 per cent.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange also ended lower with its All Shares Price Index (CASPI)-losing 138 points to close at 14,146 while the Selective Categories Index - CSCX shedding 77 points to close at 8,501.
Of the issues traded, 190 declined, 62 advanced and 28 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 12.34 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover value of more than Tk 365 million
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