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Bears further tightened their grip around the Dhaka Stock Exchange on Sunday, as the indices failed to sustain gains and turnover plunged below Tk 400 crore after one year.
The tone was set early in the day when the index dipped into the red only to continue sliding until the close of the trade.
Risk-averse investors continued to release their holdings during the month of Ramadan amid shortened trading hours and a gloomy macroeconomic outlook, dealers say.
The benchmark DSEX fell 30 points or 0.45 per cent to settle at 6,554 after a marginal rise in the previous session.
Its junior partners the Shariah-based DSES index edged over 5 points or 0.38 per cent down at 1,442 while the blue-chip DS30 index shed 5 points or 0.22 per cent at 2,435.
Stock trading turnover in the stock exchange tends to slow during Ramadan when most individual investors step back from the market, they said.
The volume of trade by value stood at Tk 3,93 crore, which is the lowest since April 4, 2021, when it was Tk 2,336 crore and more than 25 per cent down over the previous session.
“Most retailers and some institutional investors remained inactive, weighing on stock prices and slowing down trading activity,” said a dealer at a top brokerage firm.
Most of the sectors lost their ground led by insurers (-1.25 per cent), textile (-1.11 per cent), financial institutions (-0.67 per cent), cement (-71 per cent) and pharmaceuticals (-0.25 per cent).
On the flip side, telecommunication stocks remained in the limelight where Grameenphone ended 3.20 per cent higher.
“Equity indices ended the day in the red zone as the liquidity crunch of the capital market exacerbated further amid growing consumption in Ramadan and the upcoming spending spree centering Eid-ul-Fitr,” said EBL Securities in a note.
Worries of investors loomed amid global economic turbulence due to commodity market volatility and price hikes for necessities, resulting in a liquidity constraint in the capital market as most investors are afraid to engage in the market at the moment, it said.
The prolonged pessimism kept investors inactive, as they lost their appetite for risk-taking in the negative market, it added.
Out of the 385 issues traded, 58 advanced, 280 declined, and 47 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse, CSE, also settled in red terrain. The selected indices (CSCX) and All Share Price Index (CASPI) have declined by 38.7 points and 64.4 points respectively.
