Stocks slump on profit taking

Stocks in Bangladesh dipped on Wednesday as an overwhelming number of investors went for profit booking on large-cap stocks.

DSEX, the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), dropped 50.41 points or 0.77 per cent to settle at 6,487.

Two other indices also performed in the same manner.

The DS30 index, the blue-chip index, lost 20.27 points to close at 2,333 and the DSES, the Shariah-based index, went down 9.42 points to 1,417.

Turnover, another important market indicator, plunged to Tk1307.8 crore, 12 per cent lower than the previous day’s figure of Tk1480.1 crore.

Block transactions outshined on the day with a contribution of 1 per cent to the overall market turnover.

Losers outnumbered the gainers on the Dhaka bourse, as out of 371 issues traded, 72 surged, 175 fell, and 124 did not see any price movement.

The equity indices on the Dhaka bourse tumbled as the investors went for massive selling spree towards some large-cap stocks, taking advantage of the recent price appreciation, as they were concerned regarding the recent currency devaluation, which caused the major index to fall below the 6500-mark again.

The market managed to remain afloat till the mid of the trading session; but the subsequent selling pressure on some particular large-cap stocks pulled the indices down.

Investors were watchful since the Bangladesh Bank recently set uniform exchange rates of dollar for exporters and remitters, while the interbank dollar rate jumped to Tk106.9 on Tuesday.

Pharmaceutical issues posted the highest turnover of 24.2 per cent, followed by miscellaneous (16.5 per cent) and engineering stocks (10.4 per cent).

On the sectoral performance, Jute, tannery and travel and the leisure closed positive while ceramics, services, real estate and the cement sector faced corrections.

Orion Pharma became the most-traded stock on the DSE trading floor with its shares worth Tk125 crore changing hands, followed by Beximco (Tk118 crore), JMI Hospital Requisite Manufacturing (Tk54.8 crore), and LafargeHolcim (Tk34.3 crore).

The port city bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also went down on the day with the CSE, the All share price index (CASPI), giving up 179 points to settle at 19,053.

On the CSE trading floor, 43 stocks advanced 147 issues declined, and 72 remained unchanged.