BBN file photo
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s stocks maintained the losing streak for the fourth straight session on Wednesday as the key index of the prime bourse dipped below 5,200-mark again after two weeks.
The investors continued their selling binge amid lack of confidence, coupled with liquidity crunch in the money market while many have followed cautious stance during Ramadan, according to market operators.
The government market supportive measures including redefining the banks' capital market exposure to increase the fund flow in the capital market is yet to attract investors, they explained.
The market opened on positive note and the key index of the major bourse rose about 20 points within first 45 minutes of trading. But late hours selling pressure wiped out the early gains.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 21.88 points or 0.41 per cent to settle at two weeks low at 5,196.
Two other indices also drifted lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 12.69 points to finish at 1,812 and the DSE Shariah Index shed 9.15 points to close at 1,194.
Turnover stood at BDT 2.56 billion on the country's premier bourse, rising 2.0 per cent over previous day's 13-month lowest turnover of BDT 2.51 billion.
The banking sector dominated the day's turnover chart, capturing 25 per cent of the day's total turnover, followed by engineering with 13 per cent and pharmaceuticals 12 per cent.
However, some investors took position on bank, financial institutions and insurance sectors' stocks based on the latest quarter financial performance, said the stockbroker.
The large-cap sectors posted negative performance except banking and non-bank financial institutions which gained 0.24 per cent 0.12 per cent respectively.
Pharmaceuticals sector posted the highest loss of 1.12 per cent as the sector heavyweight Square Pharma lost 2.28 per cent alone.
Food, engineering, power and telecommunication sectors also lost 0.59 per cent, 0.55 per cent, 0.39 per cent and 0.10 per cent respectively.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 341 issues traded, 173 declined, 103 advanced and 65 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 71,072 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 92.79 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also fell to BDT 3,835 billion on Wednesday, from BDT 3,845 billion in the previous day.
Brac Bank topped the turnover chart with 3.0 million shares worth nearly BDT 171 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were Fortune Shoes, Square Pharmaceuticals, Premier Bank and IFIC Bank.
On the other hand, Chittagong Stock Exchange ended lower with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -shedding 50 points to settle at 15,912 points and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -losing 32 points to finish at 9,632.
BBN/SSR/AD