Stocks lost for the seventh consecutive session yesterday, which is the longest losing streak in recent months.
The market was in positive territory in the morning, but dived till mid-session before recovering some points in the wee hours.
The benchmark index DSEX lose 12 points or 0.3% to 4,573—its lowest since December 20 last year.
The Shariah index DSES was marginally down 4 points to 1,102. The blue chip comprising index DS30 inched 3 points down to 1,729.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index CSCX closed at 8,566, shedding 13 points.
Trading activities continued to remain sluggish despite a slight increase as the DSE turnover was at Tk400 crore, up 13% over the previous session. Moderate rally in small and mid-cap stocks capped the losses suffered by large cap sectors.
Amid lacklustre trading, food and allied gained the highest more than 3%, driven by Emerald Oil Industries that surged 4.5%.
Cement sector bucked its heavy losses in previous session as it closed marginally higher.
Large cap sectors suffered the most with telecommunications declining 1.4%, non-banking financial institutions 0.8%, power 0.7% and banks 0.6%.
Pharmaceuticals, engineering and textile also moved down marginally.
Lanka Bangla Securities said, “As the overall market movement remained bearish, investors adopted the bottom-up approach to take position in stocks, reflected by price movement in sector specific stocks.”
Altex Industries was the most-traded share with a turnover worth Tk15.8 crore.