Economic Reporter :
The premier index of Dhaka bourse tumbled to a fresh 41-month low on Sunday as worried investors continued their selling binge amid growing concern over the country’s overall economy.
The shaky investors’ selling spree was observed in the large-cap sectors, especially in bank, engineering, textile and financial institutions sectors.
However, the bargain hunters were active on telecom, food and pharma sectors’ stocks. The depressed market outlook kept the investors worried that resulted 12 per cent decrease in turnover over the last session.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, lost 15.95 points or 0.35 per cent to settle at 4,498. It was the lowest level of DSEX in more than 41 months since July 10 in 2016, when DSEX was 4,495.
The DSEX has lost a cumulative 283 points in the past one month while it shed 1,452 points since January 24, this year, when the index peaked at 5,950.
Market analysts said investors had been suffering a lack of confidence for long while poor macroeconomic indicators, dearth of quality stocks and liquidity crunch exacerbated the ongoing confidence crisis among investors.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 9.50 points to finish at 1,538 and the DSE Shariah Index lost 1.54 points to close at Tk 1,015.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, also fell to Tk 3.06 billion, which was 12 per cent lower than the previous day’s turnover of Tk 3.49 billion.
Losers outnumbered the gainers, as out of 352 issues traded, 201 closed lower and 100 ended higher while 51 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor in the outgoing week.
Ring Shine Textiles dominated the day’s turnover chart with 20.36 million shares worth Tk 306 million changing hands.
The day’s other turnover leaders were Beacon Pharma, Northern Insurance, Khulna Power and Paramount Insurance.
Monno Jute Stafflers was the week’s best performer, posting a gain of 7.49 per cent while the Ring Shine Textiles was the worst loser, losing 10.66 per cent, the second day of debut trading.
A total number of 122,926 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 121.62 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE also fell to Tk 3,433 billion on Sunday, from Tk 3,436 billion in the previous session.
The port city’s bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange, also ended lower with its All Shares Price Index (CASPI)-losing advancing 58 points to close at 13,674 and the Selective Categories Index – CSCX -shedding 36 points to finish at 8,295.
Here too, the losers beat gainers, as 129 issues closed lower, 57 ended higher and 33 remained unchanged on the CSE. The port city bourse traded 10.15 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 197 million in turnover.
