Price fall in large-cap drives stocks down

Stocks today closed the first session of the week with downward trend due to price fall mainly in large-cap securities.

The falling major sectors were mutual funds, ceramics and insurance. A total of 166 securities of the large-cap group moved down due to lower activities.

DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), also slumped 90.77 points or 1.65 per cent to settle at 5,385. Two other indices also ended lower. The DSE 30 Index comprising blue chips, lost 48.20 points to finish at 2,057 and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) shed 20.45 points to close at 1,222.

Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, stood at Taka 4.67 billion on the country’s premier bourse, slumping by 33 per cent over the previous day’s mark of Taka 6.94 billion.

Beximco, that lost more than 3.0 per cent, was the most traded stock with shares worth over Taka 1.05 billion changing hands followed by Robi, BATBC, LankaBangla Finance and Beximco Pharma.

Al-Ha Textile was the day’s best performer, posting a gain of 10 per cent while Prime Finance First Mutual Fund was the worst loser, losing 6.50 per cent.

A total number of 103,794 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with a trading volume of 115.29 million shares and mutual fund units. 

The market-cap of DSE also fell to Taka 4,600 billion on Monday, down from Taka 4,656 billion in the previous day.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also kept losing with the CSE All Share Price Index, CASPI, shedding 256 points to settle at 15,564 and the Selective Categories Index, CSCX, losing 155 points to close at 9,389.

Of the issues traded, 122 declined, 26 advanced and 38 remained unchanged on the CSE.

The port city’s bourse traded 6.86 million shares and mutual fund units with turnover value of Taka 414 million.