Dhaka stocks in the first trading session of the week closed in red territory as cautious investors continued to reduce their capital market exposure owing to prevailing concerns regarding the market momentum.
Besides, the resurgence of political movements in the country made investors nervous that’s why they were taking a cautious stand instead of actively participating on the trading floor, stockbrokers said.
The DSEX, the broad index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), declined 5.7 points to settle at 6,334 against 6,340 in the previous trading session.
Meanwhile, the Dhaka bourse observed a slight decrease in participation with the market turnover falling by 7.4 per cent to Tk 627 crore against the tally of Tk 677 crore in the previous session.
Block trades accounted for 7.1 per cent or Tk 44 crore of the total DSE turnover.
The general insurance topped the turnover chart with a contribution of 23.0 per cent of the total turnover of the DSE, followed by food (14.6 per cent) and textile (13.7 per cent).
Fu Wang Food Ltd was the most traded stock with Tk 43 crore worth of its shares changing hands, followed by Al-Haj Textile Mills Limited, and Sea Pearl Beach Resort & Spa Limited.
The market observed flat momentum until mid-session, while a sale pressure continued to mount during the latter half of the session, which prompted risk-averse investors to safeguard their funds from the prevailing market volatility and sit on cash to look for lucrative investment opportunities following the corrections, said EBL Securities, a stockbroker, in its daily market review.
Most sectors displayed mixed returns, with the IT facing the highest correction of 1.9 per cent, followed by jute (1.2 per cent) and paper (0.6 per cent), while the life insurance posted the highest gain of 1.7 per cent, followed by general insurance (0.3 per cent) and textile (0.3 per cent), as per EBL Securities.
According to the daily market review of Brac-epl Stock Brokerage, all the large-cap sectors posted negative performance Sunday, with the engineering experiencing the highest loss of 0.17 per cent, followed by food and allied (0.11 per cent), fuel and power (0.11 per cent), bank (0.09 per cent), pharmaceutical (0.08 per cent), NBFI (0.03 per cent).
Al-Haj Textile Mills Limited rose 9.9 per cent to become the day’s top gainer, while Meghna Insurance Company Limited was the day’s worst sufferer with a loss of 7.4 per cent.
Out of the issues traded, 55 advanced, 115 declined and 222 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 9.5 points and 15.7 points respectively.
