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Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– Bangladesh’s stocks extended the losing streak for three consecutive sessions on Wednesday as shaky investors continued their selling binge.

The worried investors continued their selling spree amid lack of confidence, liquidity shortage and rising deposit interest rate, market operators explained.

Disappointing earnings declaration by number of companies coupled with falling portfolio investments in stocks also made investors frustrated, they added.

The market opened on positive note, but did not sustain as the investors went for selling of shares within half an hour and continued until end of the session.

At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, went down by 17.61 points or 0.33 per cent to settle at 5,272.

DSEX eroded 122 points in the past three consecutive sessions after recovering 219 points in the previous three days.
Two other indices also maintained the downward trend. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 3.77 points to finish at 1,858 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 4.49 points to close at 1,217.

Turnover, another important indicator of the market, also fell sharply by 23 per cent to BDT 3.31 billion, from BDT 4.33 billion in the previous day.

Tannery sector dominated the turnover chart – the sector accounted for 12.6 per cent of total turnover, followed by Pharma with 12.30 per cent and textile 11.9 per cent.

According to International Leasing Securities, the ongoing bearish trend prompted the investors to liquidate their holdings from food, textile, pharma, engineering, power and bank sectors which pushed down the index.

However, the market witnessed some buoyancy in telecom, financial institution and tannery stocks in the middle of the session, said the stockbroker.

Among the major sectors food saw the highest loss of 0.60 per cent, followed by textile with 0.58 per cent, pharma 0.50 per cent, engineering 0.40 per cent, power and banking 0.10 per cent each.
Telecommunication and financial institutions managed to gain 0.10 per cent each.

The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 343 issues traded, 206 declined, 85 advanced and 52 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.

A total number of 90,636 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 95.27 million securities.

The market capitalisation of the DSE also fell to BDT 3,884 billion on Wednesday, from BDT 3,893 billion in the previous day.

Fortune Shoes topped the turnover chart again with 8.32 million shares worth BDT 317 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were Monno Ceramic, Esquire Knit Composite, Indo-Bangla Pharma and Power Grid Company.

Standard Ceramic was the day’s best performer, posting a gain of 6.98 per cent while Central Pharmaceuticals was as the worst loser, losing 9.79 per cent.

On the other hand, Chittagong Stock Exchange ended lower with its CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI -shedding 21 points to settle at 16,209 points and the Selective Categories Index – CSCX -losing 10 points to finish at 9,815.

Here too, the losers beat gainers, as 136 issues closed lower, 57 ended higher and 31 remained unchanged on the CSE.

The port city bourse traded 5.57 million shares and mutual fund units worth BDT 162 million in turnover.

BBN/SSR/AD