Indices continue to slip, turnover inch up
Stocks fell for the third consecutive trading session on Monday as investors continued to sell their holdings in stocks amid political tensions ahead of the elections in the country.
DSEX, the broad-based index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), fell 0.26% on Monday and settled at 6,299.7 points compared to the previous trading session.
Investor participation slightly increased by 12.2% and the daily turnover stood at Tk468 crore.
"The prolonged volatility and waning market momentum have induced the majority of investors to sell off their holdings for safeguarding their funds from the ailing market," EBL Securities wrote in its daily market commentary.
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Cautious investors preferred to remain on the sidelines and observe the market momentum amid the prevailing macroeconomic concerns, coupled with the rising political tensions in the country, the commentary added.
On the sectoral front, food, general insurance, and miscellaneous stocks contributed the most to the day's turnover by adding 13.1%, 11.5%, and 11.4% respectively.
Only paper and pharmaceutical sectors posted price appreciations with 0.4% and 0.1% gains respectively. Rest of the sectors faced corrections, with general insurance losing 3.3%, life insurance losing 1.9% and IT losing 1.3%.
Out of the 392 issues traded, 28 advanced, 142 declined and 222 remained unchanged at the DSE.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange also settled on red terrain. The selected indices (CSCX) and All Share Price Index (CASPI) declined by 24.1 and 40.7 points to 11,133 and 18,624 respectively.
