Insurance, food, ceramics stocks save the day

Reaching a one-year high, following gains in consecutive sessions, Bangladesh stocks faced a minor correction on Monday.

Major sectors such as banking, telecoms, services, real estate, pharmaceuticals, textiles, tanneries and information technology (IT) faced some profit-booking efforts by a section of investors.

At the end of the volatile session, insurance, ceramics, food and allied stocks helped offset the sale pressure and limit the decline in stock indices to a nominal level.

Thanks to the market's rotational appetite for sectoral stocks.

DSEX, the broad-based index at the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), lost 0.4% to close at 5,092 points, while the blue-chip index DS30 and Shariah index DSES also closed slightly lower.

Turnover at the premier bourse declined 13.6% as some of the active investors approached the volatile market with a cautious attitude.

Analysts told The Business Standard that long-term position takers are active on the market as they are anticipating the market direction to remain upward in the long run.

Thanks to macroeconomic resilience, an increased expectation for good governance of the capital market, and a favourable money market situation emerged in the last three months.   

Meanwhile, over one-third  gains in indices and far higher returns from many individual stocks attracted some sellers to book profit or rebalance their investment portfolios through selling pricey stocks and buying undervalued or fairly valued ones.

Price correction is a natural and essential part of the market that helps a market get healthier and stronger, said Minhaz Mannan Emon, a director of DSE.

"Investor confidence, the most important factor in the market, is back because of securities regulator's practical initiatives and the course is all set so far," he added.  

Major indices at the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also faced a moderate correction with around 20% decline in daily turnover.