DSEX dips 19 points as investors hold back
Investor apprehension, driven by economic difficulties and political uncertainty, led to reduced buying activity. This, coupled with the declining prices of several blue-chip stocks, caused the DSEX, the Dhaka Stock Exchange's premier index, to drop by 19 points on Thursday.
The DSE benchmark index fell by 19 points, closing at 5,200, the Shariah Index was down by 10 points to 1,155, and the DS30 index was lower by 11 points to 1,931.
Turnover at the DSE decreased by 5.13%, reaching Tk314 crore from Tk331 crore compared to the previous session.
Among the 398 stocks traded, 98 gained, 229 declined, and 71 remained unchanged.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
The indices started the session positively and maintained an upward trend for five minutes. However, the main index began to decline and tried to bounce back and completed the first hour in a mixed trend. After that, the index gradually declined until the session ended.
Key contributors to the market movement included British American Tobacco Bangladesh, Robi Axiata, Beximco Pharmaceuticals, Grameenphone, Power Grid Company of Bangladesh, LafargeHolcim Bangladesh, Beacon Pharmaceuticals, Bangladesh Submarine Cables, Kohinoor Chemicals Company, and Best Holdings Ltd.
Rupali Bank led the top gainers, followed by One Bank, S Alam Cold Rolled Steels, Dutch-Bangla Bank, and Fine Foods Limited.
Prime Finance First Mutual Fund topped the list of losers, followed by Usmania Glass Sheet Factory, Renwick Jajneswar, Meghna Condensed Milk Industries, and Daffodil Computers Ltd.
In its daily market commentary, EBL Securities noted that the equity indices of the Dhaka bourse closed in red territory amid lower market participation as cautious investors shy away from taking positions in equities considering the market's waning momentum.
The market witnessed a range-bound trading activity today with buyers and sellers being active on both sides of the trading fence to grab the realm of the market momentum.
The lacklustre market observed sell dominance for the majority of today's session, causing the majority of scrips to extend their correction mode while only stocks from the giant Bank sector remained resilient throughout the session. Trading activities remained stagnant with market turnover in DSE further decreasing by 5.1% to Tk3.1 billion as against Tk3.3 billion in the previous session.
On the sectoral front, the banking sector accounted for the highest turnover at 26.8%, followed by the pharmaceuticals sector at 13.4% and the textile sector at 10.1%.
Most sectors showed negative returns, with jute 2.5%, IT 1.7%, and food 1.5% experiencing the largest declines. However, the banking sector is 1.6% and the ceramic sector is 0.5% managed to post gains on the Dhaka Stock Exchange yesterday.
Meanwhile, the port city bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), closed on a positive note. The selected indices (CSCX) gained 20.9 points, while the All Share Price Index (CASPI) increased by 40.3 points.
