Investors continue to bleed as stocks racing to sink

Dhaka stocks sank massively for the third consecutive trading session on Tuesday as investors’ fears mounted centering the current macroeconomic turbulence including the risk of further devaluation of the taka and more inflationary pressure in the coming days.

Besides, the recently published bleak corporate disclosures and rumors regarding the floor price withdrawal further weakened investors’ confidence as most of the stocks were stuck at their floor prices for a long time at the country’s premier bourse— Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), analysts say.

Moreover, the central bank’s recent decision to uplift the interest rate cap on consumer loans along with the depleting foreign exchange reserves and the worsening trade gap between exports and imports also intensified investors’ concerns about the return of their funds put into the capital market, they said.

The DSEX, the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), plunged 35.16 points or 0.56 per cent to settle at 6,218, which was the lowest in the last three months.

Among other indices, the DSES, the Shariah-based index, fell 11.30 points or 0.83 per cent to 1,347, and the DS30, the blue-chip index, dipped 15.53 points or 0.7 per cent to close at 2,183.

Turnover, another crucial market indicator, fell by 21.5 per cent to Tk 561 crore against Tk 714 crore in the previous trading session. Equity indices of the Dhaka bourse continued to bleed as dismal corporate earnings for the second consecutive quarter prompted investors to offload their holdings and remain on the sidelines, said EBL Securities, a stockbroker, in its daily market review.

The gloomy macroeconomic outlook and the poor financial performance of the listed companies further weakened investors’ confidence on the trading floor, it added further saying that investors opted to protect their funds from the ailing market to minimise their losses.

The pharma & chemicals sector topped the turnover chart with a contribution of 21.8 per cent to the total turnover, followed by the IT (17.7 per cent) and paper (10.5 per cent) sectors.

Most of the sectors displayed dismal returns on the DSE trading floor with the jute sector suffering the most with a loss of 5.9 per cent, followed by services (2.6 per cent), and IT (1.4 per cent).

Among the large-cap sectors, the bank sector booked the highest gain of 0.03 per cent, followed by fuel & power (0.02 per cent), and telecommunication.

On the other hand, the pharmaceutical sector faced the highest correction with a loss of 1.31 per cent, followed by engineering (0.05 per cent), food & allied (0.05 per cent), and NBFI (0.01 per cent).

Out of the 389 issues traded, only stocks 25 advanced, while 60 issues declined, and 304 scrips did not see any price movement on the DSE trading floor.

The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also closed lower with its two major indices – the selected indices (CSCX), and the all-share price index (CASPI), declining by 29.5 points and 48.7 points respectively.