Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Dhaka stocks continued to fall for the third consecutive session as turnover declined sharply on Monday, market operators said.

The benchmark index, DGEN, and the all share price index, DSI, each lost 0.77 percent on the day, DSE-20 declined 0.61 percent.  

Total turnover value stood at BDT 8.5 billion, 27 percent down from Sunday’s value.

 All the financial sectors lost on Monday – banks (-0.82 percent), non-banking financial institutions (-1.77 percent), general insurance (-1.25 percent) and life insurance (-1.13 percent).

On the other hand, pharmaceuticals (+0.30 percent) and fuel and power (+0.39 percent) were the only gainers among the major sectors.

A new company – Deshbandhu Polymer – made debut on Monday. Its price appreciated 640 percent from the offer price of BDT 10 (at face value) to close at BDT 74, the DSE data showed.

Some stockbrokers said many investors who booked cheap shares during the debacle in last week, were selling their holdings for profit taking, which mainly plunged the share prices. But, the down trend slowed on the day when the fall was marginal compared to the fall on the week’s opening day.

Out of 248 issues traded, 67 gained, 177 incurred loss and four remained unchanged.

Price index at Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) increased marginally on the same day.

Key price index at the CSE eased up by 11.42 points to close to 13567.73.

Out of 181 issues traded in the CSE, 53 gained, 121 slipped and seven remained unchanged.

Banking and non-banking financial issues and energy, pharmaceuticals and engineering sector remained on the most active trading lists on both the stock exchanges, they added.

BBN/SI/AD-17Jan11-10:50 pm (BST)