Stocks returned to the red Thursday after previous day's upturn with turnover dipping to one-month low on major bourse as investors remained more cautious amid the increased level of volatility.
After falling sharply at the open, stocks have regained some ground, but index wrapped up the day in negative territory. DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) ended at 5,285.83 points, shedding 29.27 points or 0.55 per cent.
The two other indices also closed in the red. The DS30, comprising blue chips, lost 4.29 points or 0.21 per cent to close at 1,997.79 points. The DSE Shariah Index dropped 6.31 points or 0.50 per cent to close at 1,242.46 points.
The total turnover on DSE came down to Tk 8.14 billion, registering a decline of 16.5 per cent over the previous session's value of Tk 9.75 billion. It is one-month lowest turnover since Tk 6.68 billion on September 15.
The investors' attention was mostly concentrated on power, engineering and pharma - the sectors that accounted for 23 per cent, 14 per cent and 13 per cent respectively of the day's total turnover.
"The market volatility resurfaced in the day's session as stocks began to tumble across the major sectors. The fear of possible market correction fuelled the pessimistic turn in the market along with severe drop in overall market's participation," said International Leasing Securities.
However, selected June-ending stocks from the fuel and power sector maintained their recent price rally ahead of yearly dividend announcement, said the International Leasing.
"The market emerged red as clienteles remained more cautious amid the increased level of volatility," said IDLC Investments.
The shakiness reined in the later part of the session, beating down market sentiment. Besides, scrip-wise movements were present with 55 issues changing more than 3.0 per cent of their respective price, said the merchant bank.
LankaBangla Securities said: "The benchmark index fell to their lowest intraday levels in last five days before bouncing back to the upside".
Last hour buying appetite reflected a number of positive catalysts including whopping consumer confidence of 25.9 points in the first half of 2014 to 66.4 points from the previous six months, said the stock broker, quoting MasterCard Worldwide Index of Consumer.
"It is normal for the index to turn around and go slow when it came close to 5,300 points, as investors becomes highly sensitive whenever the index comes near to any round figure," said Zenith Investments.
Among the major sectors only power posted positive yield of 1.38 per cent. All the others rector closed in red besides food and allied which closed flat with no movement.
Banks and NBFIs retraced by 0.97 per cent and 0.96 per cent respectively. Pharmaceuticals saw 0.91 per cent correction, after remaining up for four consecutive sessions. Telecommunication also went down by 0.27 per cent.
Losers outpaced gainers as out of 303 issues traded, 187 declined, 88 advanced and 28 remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
Dhaka Electric Supply Company (DESCO) was the day's most traded stocks with shares worth Tk 394.28 million changing hands followed by Titas Gas, Square Pharma, MJL BD and Bangladesh Building Systems.
DESCO was also the day's highest gainer, posting a rise of 9.59 per cent while Fu-Wang Food was the day's worst losers, losing 5.37 per cent.
Activities decreased in the major bourse (DSE) where trade and volume were down by 11.36 per cent and 21.32 per cent respectively. A total of 0.154 million trades were executed with 174.89 million securities of trading volume.
The total market capitalization on DSE stood at Tk 3,467.62 billion against Tk 3,477.65 billion in the previous session.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also closed in the red with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX - lost 47.78 points to close at 9,911.93 points.
Losers beat gainers 158 to 51, with 16 issues remaining unchanged at the port city bourse that traded 14.96 million shares and mutual fund units, turnover value of Tk 566.46 million
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