Stocks slide as corporate earnings outlook weakens
Withstanding the diesel-petrol price shock on Sunday, stocks failed to hold their momentum on Monday as investors became cautious about the weakening corporate earnings outlook.
DSEX, the broad-based index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), dropped 0.71% to below 6,259 points – the sharpest fall since 31 July when the market entered into floor pricing protection.
The blue-chip index DS30 dropped 0.97% to 2,237.
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"Equity indices continued their downward trend for the second consecutive day as investors were unnerved over the recent surge in fuel prices that exacerbated the ongoing macroeconomic tensions," said EBL Securities in its daily market commentary.
The sharpest ever jump in fuel prices on Friday is putting further pressure on the economy, which has already been suffering from high inflation and depreciating local currency, it added.
This led the investors' concerns to be concentrated on the possibility of rising living costs and decreasing bottom lines of the listed companies whose capacity utilisation may have already been affected by the disrupted power supply resulting from the shortage of natural gas.
On top of that, the government's plan to keep factories closed for a day every week as a part of energy austerity measures weakened investors' sentiment as they now fear production and sales losses, and earnings deterioration, said stockbrokers.
Meanwhile, failing all the curb market monitoring drives, the US dollar jumped to a record high of Tk115 on the streets of Motijheel on Monday which further hurt the confidence of stock investors in the macroeconomic situation.
DSE observed a slight decrease in participation as the total turnover declined 6.1% to Tk1,083 crore.
Textile, miscellaneous, and pharmaceutical stocks contributed to nearly half of the day's turnover in the country's premier bourse.
Non-bank financial institutions, food, and miscellaneous sectors suffered the maximum price corrections, while services, ceramic, and paper sectors registered some gains.
Out of 382 scrips traded on the DSE, only 103 advanced, 211 declined, and 68 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange also settled in the red terrain.
