DSEX continues downward slide

The DSEX, a benchmark index, remained under a bearish spell with volumes also showing a significant decline at the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) on Tuesday.

At close, the index finished with a fall of 27 points or 0.42 per cent to settle at 6,403, extending the losses for the fifth straight session and falling further from its Tuesday’s 10-month low. The index dropped to an intra-day low of 6,319 before recovering some points.

The market was in the green for about 20 minutes in the morning but started to decline at close.

The benchmark’s junior indices—the Shariah-based DSES index was marginally down 1 point or 0.1 per cent at 1,408 while the blue-chip DS30 index shed 2 points or 0.09 per cent at 2,363.

“Stocks on the Dhaka bourse plunged on investors’ worries as the global economic outlook made them nervous to exert selling pressure on the bourse,” said the EBL Securities in a post-market comment.

Indices observed a major setback in the beginning, however, late-session recovery attempts contributed by price appreciation of some large-cap stocks clutched the free fall, it said.

Investors might favour sideline strategies to observe market momentum in the backdrop of rising inflation and depreciating exchange rates, it added.

Besides, bourses observed a considerable decrease in participation while turnover has declined by 23.9 per cent and stood at Tk 780 crore as against Tk 1,024 crore in the previous session.

On the sectoral front, pharmaceuticals (14.8 per cent) issues exerted the highest turnover followed by miscellaneous (12.8 per cent) and textile (9.1 per cent) stocks.

Most of the sectors displayed waning performance, out of which general insurance (-3.1 per cent), life Insurance (-2.5 per cent), and jute (-1.6 per cent) exerted the most corrections while, cement (1.9 per cent ), paper (1.3 per cent ), and tannery (0.2 per cent ) observed some positive returns on the bourse.

Out of the 385 issues traded, 89 advanced, 245 declined, and 51 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 72.8 and 121.4 points respectively.