DSE turnover shrinks to 7-month low as indices keep falling

The stock market's downward trend continued on Monday as investors were conservative amid an added fear of new coronavirus variant Omicron.

As a large number of investors went into the sideline, daily turnover at the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) declined 40% and squeezed to Tk697 crore, the lowest in more than seven months.

DSEX, the broad-based benchmark of the premier bourse, came down to 6,882 points during Monday's close, which was at 7,050 five days ago and at 6,920 on Sunday.

Blue-chip index DS30 fell 0.72% to close at 2,585 on Monday, while the broad index managed to limit the daily fall to 0.55%.

The week-long rally in small-cap scrips came to a halt and their price corrected on Monday.

Stockbrokers said average investors are preferring sitting on cash ahead of the year-end when banks and other institutional investors might opt for booking some profits they are sitting on following a 15 months-long market rally up to the end of September.

Also, most were waiting to hear some consensus between the regulators of the money market and the capital market regarding the unresolved issues including methods of banks' capital market exposure calculation and others.

The stock market's volatility nowadays seems to be linked with the outcome of the meetings between the central bank and the BSEC as indices gain on positive post-meeting notes and fall while no progress is communicated.

However, paper and printing, general insurance and non-bank financial institution sectors gained on Monday while ceramic, miscellaneous, jute services and tannery sectors led the sectoral table of losers.

Out of the 377 issues traded, 101 advanced, 228 declined, and 48 remained unchanged in the DSE.

In the port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), daily turnover came down to TK35 crore from Sunday's Tk43 crore.