DSEX drops 0.3% as stocks continue bleeding

Dhaka stocks extended their downbeat momentum to the second straight session on Wednesday.

DSEX, the broad-based index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), dropped by 0.3% to 6213.37 Wednesday.

Short-term orientation and rush for profit booking across the market amid uncertain market direction and shaky confidence have been blamed by the market people for the decline.

EBL Securities wrote in its daily market commentary, "Investors were active on both sides of the trading fence, but sellers went up to the dominant side during the last hour of the session, causing the majority of the stocks to witness corrections."

Considering the probable adverse impact of the prolonged inflationary pressures on the economy, as well as other macroeconomic challenges, investors are preferring to chase selective issues with short-term gain potential over taking long-term positions in equities, it added.

Financial market sentiment is getting cloudier also because of the bank failures in the USA and the continuation of the Russia-Ukraine war, according to analysts.

On Wednesday, 21 DSE scrips advanced, and 110 declined, while over 260 remained stuck at the floor prices as they had no buyers till the closing bell.

Meanwhile, the Dhaka bourse observed an increase in participation as total turnover rose by 7.7% to Tk607 crore.

On the sectoral front, life Insurance, IT and pharmaceuticals together made over 40% of the day's turnover in the DSE.

Most of the sectors faced declines on Wednesday. Travel and leisure, paper and IT sectors led the losers as their market capitalisation dropped by 3.9%, 2.6%, and 1.8%, respectively.

Food and allied was the only sector to advance thanks to Olympic Industries shares that soared by more than 6% to occupy the top spot at the gainers' table.

Al-Haj Textile, Padma Life Insurance, Chartered Life Insurance, ADN Telecom, Sonali Life, RD Food, Premier Bank, Oimex Electrode, and Navana CNG were the other stocks on the top ten gainers' table.

Navana CNG made only 0.44% gains to be at the tenth spot.

In contrast, the top losers faced bigger price changes as Metro Spinning shares fell by 9.97% to be the top loser, while Meghna Condensed Milk shares fell by 5.3% to be at the tenth spot of losers' table.

Block market in the last two consecutive sessions has been much active as more than Tk100 crore turnover took place there every day, thanks to Beximco Pharmaceutical shares. Two of the company's corporate directors recently announced to trade 1.7 crore of the Beximco Pharmaceutical shares between themselves in the block market.

Also, Beximco Limited and Beximco Green Sukuk were trading in the block market.