BBN file photo
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s stocks kept their losing streak for the third straight session on Tuesday as investors continued their selling spree on sector-wise shares.
Lack of investors' confidence coupled with liquidity crunch continued to take toll on stock prices, according to the market operators.
The market opened on positive note and the key index of the major bourse rose about 15 points within first 30 minutes of trading. But late hours selling pressure wiped out all the early gains.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,217, losing 29.91 points or 0.56 per cent over the previous session.
Two other indices also closed lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 10.88 points to finish at 1,825 and the DSE Shariah Index shed 7.0 points to close at 1,203.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, stood at BDT 2.51 billion on the country's premier bourse, slumping further by 18 per cent over previous day's mark of BDT 3.05 billion.
It was the lowest turnover in more than 13 months since March 24, 2018, when turnover was recorded BDT 2.24 billion.
According to International Leasing Securities, the ongoing bearish trend prompted investors to liquidate their holdings, mostly from banking, food and telecommunication sectors.
The food sector posted the highest loss of 0.83 per cent, followed by non-bank financial institutions with 0.79 per cent, engineering 0.72 per cent, banking 0.53 per cent, telecommunication 0.48 per cent and pharmaceuticals 0.43 per cent.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 347 issues traded, 219 declined, 76 advanced and 52 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 72,470 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 84.83 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE also fell to BDT 3,845 billion on Tuesday, from BDT 3,864 billion in the previous session.
Fortune Shoes topped the turnover chart again with 4.01 million shares worth nearly BDT 152 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were Bangladesh Shipping Corporation, Power Grid Company, Esquire Knit Composite and Oimex Electrode.
On the other hand, Chittagong Stock Exchange ended lower with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -shedding 93 points to settle at 15,962 points and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -losing 56 points to finish at 9,665.
The losers beat gainers, as 142 issues closed lower, 52 ended higher and 29 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 4.80 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than BDT 145 million in turnover.
BBN/SSR/AD