The dearth of liquidity took a toll on the premier bourse’s turnover, which was the lowest in six months yesterday. Turnover stood at Tk 121 crore, down 16.39 percent from the previous day’s Tk 145 crore.
DGEN, the benchmark general index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, lost 0.88 percent or 36.81 points to end the day at 4126.92 points.
“Due to the sudden damp turnover market confidence has been on the slump, with the DGEN dropping 92.39 points in the last five trading sessions,” IDLC Investments said in market comments.
“The market is seeing the longest streak of volume drought in the last few days. Investors seem to be puzzled with the market direction despite the recent announcement on the banks’ exposure in the capital market,” LankaBangla Securities said.
Although the exposure ceiling for banks has been 10 percent of their liabilities, they can now invest up to 40 percent of their total capital, in line with a finance ministry decision.
The exposure, however, has to be brought down to 25 percent of their total capital in the next three years.
Institutional investors remained inactive that led small investors to adopt wait-and-see policy in the market, the analysts said.
The bearish trend is expected to be chronic if the market does not get liquidity support from the institutional investors, they added.
A total of 0.44 lakh trades were executed on the Dhaka bourse, with 3.84 crore shares and mutual fund units changing hands.
None of the major sector ended the day in the black.
Power declined by 1.62 percent, followed by banks 1.03 percent, non-bank financial institutions 0.96 percent, telecommunications 0.52 percent and pharmaceuticals 0.05 percent.
Of the 261 issues that traded on the DSE floor, 42 advanced, 190 declined and 29 remained unchanged.
United Airways was the most traded stock of the day, thanks to its transaction of 43.47 lakh shares worth Tk 8.87 crore.
Beximco and Unique Hotel and Resorts were the next popular stocks of the day.
Pioneer Insurance, which posted a 2.49 percent rise, was the biggest gainer of the day, while Samorita Hospital slumped 8.57 percent to become the worst loser.
CSCX, the selective categories index of Chittagong Stock Exchange, closed the day at 8,024.72 points, dropping 60.95 points or 0.75 percent.
The port city bourse traded 50.70 lakh shares and mutual fund units, with a turnover of Tk 16.07 crore.
-With The Daily Star input