Stocks dip as investors prefer profiting to buying

After a single-day break, stocks in Bangladesh plunged Sunday, as cautious investors opted for profit booking instead putting fresh funds into new stocks.

The DSEX, the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) shed 48.83 points or 0.74 per cent to settle 6,515.

Besides, the DS30, the blue-chip index, lost 35.77 points or 1.51 per cent to close at 2,329, while the DSES, the Shariah-based index, dropped 15.71 points or 1.09 per cent to 1,421.

Turnover, another key market indicator stood at Tk 1810 crore in the prime bourse, versus the figure of Tk 1666.1 crore in the previous session.

The equity indices of the Dhaka bourse tumbled as the market had been concentrated on handful of stocks while other scrips dropped nearly to the floor-price due to the recent price corrections, making investors reluctant to take stand on buying fresh stocks, said EBL Securities, a stockbroker, in its daily market review.

The sellers outnumbered the buyers in the premier bourse as the investors mostly intended to booking profit from the recently rallied large-cap scrips, pushing the market into negative territory.

On the sectoral front, pharma and chemical registered the highest turnover with contribution of 18.3 per cent to the total turnover, followed by miscellaneous (14.8 per cent) and engineering (11.4 per cent).

Almost all the sectors displayed mixed returns on the day. Of them, travel posted the highest gain of 7.5 per cent, followed by jute (6.5 per cent), and ceramic (1.7 per cent) on the Dhaka bourse, while miscellaneous and the pharma jointly suffered the most, followed by IT.

Out of the 387 issues traded, 93 advanced, 117 declined, and 177 did not see any price movement on the DSE trading floor.

The port city bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE0, also closed lower on the day with CSCX and the CASPI giving up by 97.7 points and 161.9 points respectively.