Stocks down for the sixth straight session 

Dhaka stocks' losing streak extended to the sixth consecutive session yesterday as investors now prefer a rational exposure after the post-Hasina hikes. 

DSEX, the broad-based index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), fell by 0.88% to 5,629.54 on Monday. The index following its sharp 9.9% surge in August, fell by 3.1% in September till date to erode over Tk10,000 crore in market capitalisation since the beginning of the month.

The benchmark index continued its losing streak for the sixth consecutive session as the prevailing volatility in the market has prompted risk-averse investors to liquidate their holdings and remain watchful of the market's waning momentum, EBL Securities wrote in its daily market commentary.

Stockbrokers and analysts, however, were not surprised with the market correction as they were aware of the profit booking pressure on the rising stocks, selloff in struggling company stocks ahead of the earnings season. 

Also, the macroeconomic expectations raised by the political regime change, now sees the prevailing ground realities. 

For instance, inflation might take five-six months to cool down and until that happens interest rates might be facing upward pressure, recently hinted by the Bangladesh Bank governor. 

Rising interest rates generally hurt fund inflow to stocks and encourage investors to look for safer fixed income alternatives offering high return. 

The government treasury bonds issued for 2-20 years tenure are offering 12.24%-2.75% yields, much lucrative to the risk averse investors, especially institutional ones which tend to wait for opportunities to buy undervalued stocks.  

"Market volatility persisted throughout the session as sellers maintained their dominance, while opportunistic investors preferred to observe the market's trend and sit on cash to look for lucrative investment opportunities following the corrections," EBL Securities said on Monday. 

Meanwhile, market turnover edged down by 8.5% to Tk621 crore, down from Tk679 crore in the previous session. 

On the sectoral front, banking, pharmaceuticals and food contributed the highest 18.1%, 16.8% and 12.8% of the total turnover in the DSE, respectively. 

The downward pressure on indices were mostly created by negative changes in the market capitalisation of the banking, paper and life insurance scrips, while positive return in the travel and leisure sector helped slightly offset the downward pressure, according to Shanta Securities. 

Market capitalisation is the total value of all securities at a certain time point. 

Most of the sectors, on the bearish day, displayed dismal returns, out of which jute, mutual funds and life insurance led the declines with their 5.1%, 2.5% and 2.4% respective fall in market capitalizations. 

Out of the scrips traded on the DSE, 67 advanced, 307 declined and 25 remained unchanged.

Miracle Industries, Beacon Pharmaceuticals, Envoy Textile, Libra Infusion, DeshBandhu Polymer, NRB Bank, CVO Petrochemicals Refinery, Pharma Aid, Heidelberg Cement and Phoenix Insurance were the top gaining stocks of the day as their prices increased by 4.6%- 9.93%. 

On the other hand, Rupali Life, SK Trims, United Commercial Bank, City General Insurance, Coppertech, Confidence Cement, Prime Textile, Peoples Insurance, Mithun Knitting and Phoenix Finance were the top losers of the day as their prices fell by 6%-10%.