Stocks extended the losing streak for the second consecutive sessions Tuesday as risk-averse investors continued their selling binge on sector-wise stocks.
Brokers said ongoing pessimism coupled with tension over the selection of a strategic partner of the Dhaka bourse's share sales to strategic partner affected the investors' confidence.
The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) Monday sent back the Dhaka bourse's proposal to make a Chinese consortium its strategic partner and asked the bourse to submit a fresh proposal on the consortium's selection after fulfilling a number of conditions.
"Uncertainty over the Dhaka bourse's share sales to strategic partner and ongoing liquidity crisis continued to take toll on the country's capital market," said a stockbroker, requesting anonymity.
Following the previous day's 58 points fall, the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) started the day on downward trend amid low trading activities.
Within first 15 minutes of trading, the key index of the country's prime bourse fell more than 31 points while the CSE All Share Price Index (CAPSI) of port city's bourse slumped 28 points at 10:45am.
However, index recovered half of the initial losses as the session progressed amid volatile trading.
Finally, key index of the major bourse ended more than 14 points lower while the CSE All Share Price Index (CASPI) of port city's bourse fell 23 points lower at closing.
DSEX, the benchmark index of the DSE, went down by 14.86 points or 0.26 per cent to settle at 5,649.
According to International Leasing Securities, the shaky investors opted for liquidating their position from textile, financial institution, food, engineering and banking sectors anticipating further fall, while some cautious investors adopted "wait-and-see" stance.
The two other indices also finished lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 2.93 points or 0.13 per cent to finish at 2,102. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) lost 3.68 points or 0.27 per cent to close at 1,334.
Total turnover on the DSE fell to Tk 2.42 billion, which was 72 per cent lower than the previous day's Tk 5.12 billion.
The large-cap sectors showed negative performance except fuel & power and telecommunication which closed flat in green.
The non-bank financial institutions witnessed the highest loss of 0.67 per cent, followed by food & allied 0.56 per cent, engineering 0.35 per cent and banking 0.33 per cent.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 335 issues traded, 196 closed lower, 95 ended higher and 44 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Salvo Chemicals topped the day's turnover chart with shares worth nearly Tk 85 million changing hands, closely followed by Queen South Textile, Doreen Power, Wata Chemicals and Monno Ceramic Industries.
ICB AMCL First Argani Bank Mutual Fund was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 10 per cent while CAPM BDBL Mutual Fund-1 was the day's worst loser, losing 4.82 per cent.
Port city bourse CSE also ended marginally lower with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -losing 23 points to settle at 17,449 points and Selective Categories Index - CSCX -shedding 11 points to finish at 10,540 points.
Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 127 issues closed lower, 59 ended higher and 36 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 6.21 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 165 million in turnover.
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