BBN file photo

Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Bangladesh stocks plunged on Monday, extending the bearish trend for the seven days in a row, with key index of the major bourse dipping below 5,800-mark low after nearly eight months.

Analysts said the institutional investors mostly refrained from injecting fresh funds into the market observing the market movement carefully amid fund shortage, taking the core index below 5,800-mark again.

Following the previous six days’ major correction, the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) opened lower amid sluggish trading activities.

Within first 15 minutes of trading, the key index of the country’s prime bourse fell more than 28 points while the CSE All Share Price Index (CASPI) of port city’s bourse fell 12 points at 10:45am.

After 30 minutes of trading, the DSEX lost more than 34 points while the CSE All Share Price Index (CASPI) of port city’s bourse fell 67 points at 11:00am.

After 90 minutes of trading, DSEX fell more than 31 points while the CSE All Shares Price Index lost 82 points at 12:00 noon.

The downward trend continued till end of the session finally DSEX ended more than 57 points lower while CSE All Shares Price Index lost 163 points at closing.

DHAKA STOCK EXCHANGE:

DSEX, core index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,774.57, slumping by 57.55 points or 0.98 percent over the previous session. It was the lowest level of DSEX since July 9, 2017.

Two other indices of the premier bourse also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell nearly 15 points or 0.69 percent to finish at 2,127 and DSES (Shariah) lost nearly 13 points or 0.93 percent to close at 1,348.

Bearish sentiment also reflected on the trading activities as total turnover on the DSE amounting to BDT 3.51 billion, which was 8.59 percent lower than the previous day’s BDT 3.84 billion.

The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 334 issues traded, 249 closed lower, 38 closed higher and 47 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.

Olympic Industries topped the DSE turnover chart with shares worth BDT 215 million changing hands, closely followed by IFAD Autos, Square Pharmaceuticals, Unique Hotel & Resorts and National Tubes.

CHITTAGONG STOCK EXCHANGE:

Port city bourse CSE also closed lower with its CSE All Share Price Index – CAPSI – shedding 163 points to settle at 17845 and elective Categories Index – CSCX – falling 97 points to finish at 10,770 points.

Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 161 issues closed lower, 36 higher and 25 remained unchanged on the CSE.

The port city bourse traded 5.79 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than BDT 149 million in turnover.

BBN/SS/AD