A sharp sale pressure pulled Dhaka stocks massively down on Sunday as cautious investors opted to realise short-term gains and sat on cash amid the prevailing volatility in the market.
The DSEX, the key index of the premier bourse Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), dipped 23.0 points to settle at 6,343 points against 6,366 in the previous trading session.
Turnover, another crucial market indicator, plunged by 21.2 per cent to Tk 746 crore against the tally of Tk 947 crore in the previous session.
Block trades accounted for 4.1 per cent of the overall market turnover.
The food and allied sector topped the turnover chart with a contribution of 17.6 per cent of the total turnover of the DSE, followed by textile (11.3 per cent) and engineering (9.8 per cent).
Fu Wang Food Ltd continued to rein in the turnover board with Tk 39 crore worth of its shares changing hands, followed by Gemini Sea Food Ltd, and Alif Industries Limited.
The market managed to remain flat during the first hour of the session, but a subsequent sale pressure continued to mount across the trading floor, causing the core index to dip into red territory as investors preferred profit-booking and safeguarding their funds from the ailing market, said EBL Securities, a stockbroker, in its daily market review.
Moreover, the insurance stocks faced a significant hit owing to investors’ reaction to the temporary postponement of the gazette notification on the Bancassurance guidelines, which previously fueled a short-term rally in the sector’s stocks, it added.
According to EBL Securities, most sectors displayed dismal returns, with the general insurance facing the highest gain of 3.1 per cent, followed by travel (1.5 per cent) and life insurance (1.5 per cent), while the jute reported the highest gain of 1.3 per cent, followed by cement (0.4 per cent) and tannery (0.4 per cent).
As per the daily market review of Brac-EPL Stock Brokerage, all the large-cap sectors posted negative performance with the bank experiencing the highest loss of 0.34 per cent, followed by food and allied (0.20 per cent), engineering (0.20 per cent), pharmaceutical (0.19 per cent), NBFI (0.06 per cent), fuel and power (0.06 per cent), and telecommunication (0.00 per cent).
Alif Industries Limited rose 8.4 per cent to become the day’s top gainer, while Rupali Life Insurance Company was the day’s worst sufferer with a loss of 9.9 per cent.
Out of the securities traded, 43 advanced, 142 declined and 207 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse, CSE, also settled on red terrain, with its two major indices – the selected indices (CSCX), and the all-share price index (CASPI) – declining by 29.1 points and 39.4 points respectively.
