Stocks fall for fifth trading session

Dhaka stocks extended their downward trend for the fifth consecutive session on Wednesday as investors took a cautious selling approach in order to reshuffle their portfolios ahead of the upcoming corporate declarations.

The market started on a positive note but late-hour selling pressure caused the major index to fall below the 6,400 mark after more than seven weeks.

The DSEX, the broad index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), marginally declined by 10.5 points or 0.16 per cent and settled at 6,390 points as against 6,401 points in the previous trading session.

Among other indices, the DSES, the Shariah-based index, marginally advanced by 0.7 points to close at 1,407, and the DS30, the blue-chip index, dropped 6.4 points to 2,271.

Meanwhile, the Dhaka bourse observed an increase in participation while the total turnover rose by 17.2 per cent and stood at Tk 1178.7 crore as against Tk 1,005.9 crore in the previous session.

The market started positive, adding more than 60 points within the first hour of the trading session, but late-hour intense selling pressure in some major sectors prompted the market to nosedive into negative territory, said EBL Securities, a stockbroker, in its daily market review.

Investors took a cautious stance since the market has been concentrated on selective issues while a majority of scrips were stuck at the floor price without potential buyers. Moreover, the companies that failed to meet investors' expectations with their recent earnings disclosure have also logged corrections, commented EBL Securities.

On the sectoral front, pharma and chemical topped the turnover chart with a contribution of 18.4 per cent to the total turnover, followed by engineering (16.4 per cent) and miscellaneous (12.1 per cent) sectors.

Most of the sectors displayed mixed returns on the Dhaka bourse.

Of them, the jute sector posted the highest return of 5.9 per cent followed by IT (1.5 per cent) and life insurance (0.5 per cent).

On the other hand, the services sector suffered the most with a loss of 5.3 per cent, followed by travel (2.1 per cent) and miscellaneous (1.1 per cent).

Out of the 388 issues traded, 59 advanced, 81 declined and 248 issues did not see any price movement.

The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also settled on the red terrain with its two major indices — the selective categories Index (CSCX) and the all share price index (CASPI) — declining by 20.6 points and 33.4 points respectively.