Stocks slump as investors tend to booking profits

Stocks in Bangladesh broke the bullish trend after a four-week gain as investors largely went for profit booking on large-cap stocks this week, sending the indices of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) down.

The DSEX, the benchmark index of the DSE, declined by 45 points, or 0.7 per cent, to settle at 6,515 as most of the financial sector companies posted negative performance this week.  

Among two other major indices, the DS30, the blue-chip index, lost 29.82 points to close at 2,346.35, while the DSES, the Shariah-based index, shed 11.69 points to 1,429.56.

The turnover averaged out at Tk1,417 crore this week, 22.09 per cent down, compared to that in the last week.

Pharmaceutical sector dominated the turnover chart, contributing 22.58 per cent to the total turnover.

Out of five trading sessions, the market started on a negative note with a loss of 0.33 per cent on Sunday. It remained negative by giving up 0.15 per cent the following day.

It, however, turned positive on Tuesday by gaining 0.14 per cent. The market again lost 0.77 per cent on Wednesday.

Finally, the market closed positive with 0.43 per cent gain on Thursday.

Most of the financial sectors registered negative performance this week. Among them, non-bank financial institution (NBFI) suffered the most by giving up 0.93 per cent, followed by general insurance (0.91 per cent), life insurance (0.84 per cent), bank (0.06 per cent) and mutual fund (0.30 per cent).

Non-financial sectors posted mixed performance this week.

Food and allied booked the highest gain of 0.41 per cent, followed by telecommunication (0.01 per cent), while pharmaceutical experienced the highest loss of 1.70 per cent, followed by fuel & power (0.64 per cent), and engineering (0.04 per cent).

The equity indices on the Dhaka bourse mostly witnessed corrections this week since the investors did not concentrate their focus on particular sector-specific stocks and instead rushed to chase quick-gaining stocks, said EBL Securities, a stockbroker, in its weekly market review.

Besides, the profit-booking tendency was evident in some large-cap stocks, taking advantage of the recent price appreciation in the market as investors opted to rebalance their portfolios, it said.

However, a buying spree from bargain hunters on some particularly lucrative stocks in the last session tried to fuel positive momentum in the market, EBL Securities added.

Out of the 395 issues traded, 96 advanced, 183 declined, and 109 did not see any price movement on the Dhaka bourse this week.

The port city bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also performed in the same manner like DSE. The CASPI, the All-share price index, went down by 0.70 per cent on the CSE.

Out of the 334 issues traded, 91 advanced, 158 declined, and 85 remained unchanged on the CSE trading floor.