Stocks slip again, life insurers lead the fall

Following two consecutive recovering sessions, Dhaka-Chattogram stocks fell again on Sunday as investors rushed to book some quick profits from selective sectoral scrips.

DSEX, the broad-based index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), fell by 0.18% to 6,341 while CSCX, the major index of the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) fell by 0.09% to 11,211.

"The market, on Sunday, witnessed a little volatility but the sellers dominated the session at the end of the day," wrote EBL Securities in its daily market commentary.

Stockbrokers said investors were less confident after the big selloff on Tuesday which was triggered by a rumour that individual stock investors' capital gains might be taxed. Later, the fear was proven wrong. However, the market was yet to gain its lost momentum.

Analysts, on the other hand, were cautious over the impact of the upcoming monetary policy statement and the overall macroeconomic and political scenario.

Also, the proposal to leave no room for any tax exemption for dividend income in the new income tax bill hurt stock investors' confidence, added stockbrokers.

The life insurance sector led the fall on Sunday as the sector's market capitalisation declined by 5% in the first session of the week whereas it had increased by more than 12% over the last week.

Rupali Life Insurance and Meghna Life Insurance stocks, that surged abnormally over the recent days, had no buyer at the lowest allowable price for the session. Also, Pragati Life Insurance had no buyer during the closing bell, while its stock price was lagging a bit during the last leg of the rally.

84 scrips advanced, 114 declined in the DSE.

Meanwhile, the Dhaka bourse observed a slight decrease in participation as total turnover fell by 3.1% to Tk1,031 crore.

A number of stocks that tried to rise from the floor last week, again fell back to the floor. And during the closing bell on Sunday, 222 DSE scrips were stuck at floor prices, while 179 were trading above floor.

IT, general insurance, cement, services, miscellaneous, food, mutual funds and engineering sectors lost some of their market capitalisations in a bearish session, while travel and leisure, ceramic, paper, tannery, and textile ended in the green territory.