BBN file photo
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s stocks extended the losing streak for the fifth straight session on Wednesday as the national elections nears.
Analysts said the institutional investors mostly followed cautious stance ahead of national elections and the deteriorating health of the banking sector have hit investors hard, taking the market in the red further.
The market opened on positive note and the key index rose about 17 points within first 90 minutes of trading. But, rest of the session went down steadily.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,265, losing nearly 10 points or 0.18 percent over the previous day.
Two other indices—the DS30 index and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES)–also edged lower.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, shed 5.93 points to finish at 1,842 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 2.74 points to close at 1,210.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, remained low and the total turnover amounted to BDT 4.87 billion, which was BDT 4.83 billion in the previous day.
A total number of 133,058 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 110.40 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also fell to BDT 3,808 billion on the day which was BDT 3,815 billion in the previous day.
The gainers, however, took a modest lead over the losers as out of 340 issues traded, 163 advanced, 128 declined, and 49 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
The low-cap companies dominated the turnover chart with JMI Syringes & Medical Devices topped the DSE turnover chart with 595,928 shares worth BDT 152 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were Meghna Life Insurance, Square Pharma, SK Trims & Industries and VFS Thread Dyeing.
Prime Islami Life Insurance was the day’s best performer, posting a gain of 10 percent while Information Services Network was the worst loser for the third running days, losing 9.74 percent further.
The port city bourse CSE saw slight loss with its CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI –losing 3.18 points to settle at 16,159 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX –shedding 2.47 points to finish at 9,779.
The gainers beat losers as 116 issues closed higher, 92 ended lower and 35 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 5.17 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than BDT 169 million in turnover.
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