Stocks opened the week on back foot yesterday with the benchmark index DSEX plunging to nearly five months low.
Lower volume of trade also hit the stock markets amid sagging confidence over the current political strife.
The benchmark index DSEX fell sharply 69 points or 1.5% to close at 4,654—its lowest since September 9 this year.
The Shariah index DSES was down 16 points or 1.5% to 1,099. The comprising blue chips DS30 closed at 1,723, shedding 24 points or 1.4%.
Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, ended at 8,614, losing 121 points.
The volume of trade in value came down below Tk200 crore to stand at Tk184 crore, which is lowest in more than a month and 10.7% lower than the previous session.
All the sectors suffered selling pressure, as panicked investors tried to keep their investments safe fearing further fall of the market, said stock brokers. Over the last one month, the market experienced “one step forward and two steps backward”—the trend that sapped investor confidence, he said.
Textile sector witnessed the most selling pressure, slumping 2.6%.
Engineering sector fell 2.4%, followed by IT which declined more than 2%, non-banking financial institutions 1.9% and power 1.8%.
“The market’s bearish trend persisted amid political instability resulting into falling investor confidence,” said BRAC-EPL in its daily market analysis.
Cement, telecommunications and pharmaceuticals declined more than 1% each while Food & Allied and banks lost less than 1% each.
Over 80% issues saw fall of their share prices, as out of 308 issues traded, 25 advanced, 256 declined and 27 remained unchanged. IDLC Investments said in the wake of 72-hour hartal, the market saw panicked investors faced with selling frenzy.
“Turnover nosedived, representing a bare minimum activity in investment community,” it added.
Although, the monetary policy statement hoped for higher economic growth, conditional to stable political environment, the market paid little heed, fearing further political instability in the coming days, IDLC said.
LankaBangla Securities said investors gave a sharp retort to the monetary policy statement with no addition to the capital market incentives following the weeks of political unrest. It was another day of panicked selling which pushed the benchmark index below 4700 mark, it said.
LankaBangla said the market largely shrugged off the promising earnings declared mainly by some of the fast moving consumer goods and pharmaceutical companies as bearish stance continued.
