Dhaka stocks nosedive as investors go for rebalance of portfolios

After a single session of significant gains, Dhaka stocks nosedived on Thursday as investors opted to rebalance their portfolios ahead of the upcoming corporate declarations.

The DSEX, the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), declined 6.6 points or 0.1 per cent to settle at 6,494 points against 6,501 points in the previous trading session.

Among other indices, the DSES, the Shariah-based index lost 8.38 points or 0.58 per cent to 1,419, and the DS30, the blue-chip index, gave up 8.05 points or 0.34 per cent to close at 2,308.

Turnover, another crucial market indicator stood at Tk 1410 crore, which was up 41.9 per cent from the tally of 994.1 crore in the previous session.

Investors were prudently participating in the market despite the regulator’s recent restrictions on purchasing stocks through cheque deposits, said EBL Securities, a stockbroker, in its daily market review.

They also tended to reshuffle their portfolios to chase selective stocks from lucrative sectors, in the hope of gains from the upcoming earnings disclosures, it commented.

On the sectoral front, pharma and chemical topped the turnover chart with a contribution of 20.1 per cent to the total turnover, followed by engineering (11.6 per cent) and miscellaneous (11.0 per cent) sectors.

The sectors displayed positive returns in the Dhaka bourse.

Of them, the services sector posted the highest gain of 3.7 per cent, followed by general insurance (2.6 per cent) and miscellaneous (1.0 per cent).

Out of the 387 issues traded, 101 stocks advanced, 93 scrips declined, and issues 193 did not see any price movement.

The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also closed lower with its two major indices — the CSCX and the CASPI — declining 6 points and 10.9 points respectively.