Stocks tumbled for the second running sessions Thursday as investors' confidence remained shaky amid prolonged political strife in the country.
The market opened with a free fall and the negative trend continued till the market closure amid modest see-saw. At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) ended at 4,556.94 points, shedding 28.78 points or 0.62 per cent.
The two other indices also closed in red. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips lost 2.13 points or 0.12 per cent to close at 1,714.41 points. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) shed 1.20 points or 0.10 per cent to close at 1,104.78 points.
However, turnover on the DSE remained above Tk 3.0 billion-mark and amounted to Tk 3.28 billion, registering an increase of 5.80 per cent over the previous session's value of Tk 3.10 billion.
The investors' attention was mostly focused on food and allied, pharma and engineering - the sectors that accounted for 23 per cent, 15.3 per cent and 11.4 per cent of the day's total turnover respectively.
"The stock market ended in the negative tune in another session amidst shaky confidence from the investors," said International Leasing Securities, in its daily market analysis.
The board based index of the premier bourse hit more than 6-month low while turnover remained above Tk 3 billion-mark amid short-term profit booking stance from the investors, said the International Leasing.
"The prolonged political strife kept the investors worried so they decided to book the gain, resulting day-long selling spree," the International Leasing added.
LankaBangla Securities said: "Sinking business outlook amid political jolt kept the bearish nod unflinching for another day".
"Investors are pretending little sign of bottoming out from the current level in equity market. Banking stocks continued to took the hit with 2.66 per cent fall in market capitalization,' the stock broker said.
However, investors are still considering taking position on some manufacturing stocks that have imminent annual declaration, the stock broker added.
IDLC Investments said: "Previous session's brutal sell-off decelerated but continued to the week's closing session. However, investors showed some discretion, preferring blue chip, liquid stocks over the broad market".
Major sectors posted mixed performances in the session. Cement advanced 1.38 per cent, food and allied also appreciated by a decent 1.18 per cent while Pharmaceuticals closed higher with 1.07 per cent gain.
The other large-cap sectors closed lower. Banks lost 2.66 per cent and decline for the last eight consecutive sessions. Power retraced by 1.15 per cent and telecommunication closed lower by 0.68 per cent. NBFIs closed 0.46 per cent lower.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 308 issues traded, 169 declined and 96 advanced while 43 remained unchanged on the DSE floor.
Activities decreased in the major bourse where trade and volume were down 16.42 per cent and 2.29 per cent respectively. A total number of 0.079 million trades were executed with trading volume of 62.17 million securities.
The market capitalisation on DSE stood at Tk 3,138.15 billion against Tk 3,146.27 billion in the previous session.
ACI Ltd was the day's top turnover chart with shares worth Tk 206.56 million changing hands followed by Shasha Denims, Lafarge Surma Cement, GP and IFAD Autos.
Northern Jute Manufacturing was the day's top gainer for the second running session, posting a rise of 8.74 per cent while Social Islami Bank was the worst loser, plunging by 9.62 per cent.
The port city bourse, Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also closed in red with its Selective Categories Index - CSCX - lost 73.38 points to close at 8,435.69 points.
Losers beat gainers 141 to 62, with 28 issues remaining unchanged at the port city bourse that traded 5.54 million shares and mutual fund units, turnover value of Tk 192.35 million.
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