Stocks end week with marginal losses
The market started sliding during the early hours of trade today, and the trend continued until the end of the session
The markets extended its losses today as recent earnings declaration of most of the companies failed to live up to investors' expectations.
The prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, gave up 0.3 percent to close the day at 4,470 points.
The DSES, the Shariah-based index, slipped 0.04 percent to settle at 1,028 points, while the DS30, the blue-chip index, slid 0.2 percent to stand at 1,524 points.
At the port city bourse, the CASPI – the benchmark index – witnessed a loss of 0.6 percent to close at 13,586 points.
The market started sliding during the early hours of trade today, and the trend continued until the end of the session.
The recent earnings declarations of most of the companies have been negative, showed the DSE data.
The companies with positive earnings also failed to meet the investors' expectations, leading to market erosion in the last two sessions.
So, a section of investors has been liquidating their holdings in sector-specific stocks, which affected the DSE indices negatively, says the Daily Market Review of EBL Securities Ltd.
Also, the decline in private sector credit growth and an increase in government borrowing from the banks weakened the investors' confidence in macroeconomic factors, the review added.
Turnover, one of the key indicators of the market, stayed at Tk439.6 crore today, the same as the previous session.
Textile stocks contributed the highest, 14.3 percent, to the total turnover value, followed by engineering stocks, 13 percent, and cement stocks, 11.8 percent.
Most of the sectors ended in the negative territory on Thursday, with tannery experiencing the highest price correction of 2.3 percent, followed by the price slide of 1.3 percent of the telecom.
Whereas cement topped the sector return board with a price advancement of 3.3 percent.
Among the other large-cap sectors, financial stocks lost 1.2 percent, banks lost 0.5 percent, and the pharmaceutical stocks ended flat.
The price correction of the telecom sector was explained by Grameenphone's price erosion of 1.3 percent.
The company's board of directors recently declared a 130 percent full-year cash dividend for 2019, down from 280 percent of the previous year.
Analysts told The Business Standard that the telecom giant had cut the percentage of cash dividend to meet its tax requirements, making the investors sceptical about the stock.
Lafarge Holcim Bangladesh Ltd was the most traded stock with a turnover value of Tk50 crore, closing the day at Tk50.3 per share. The stock was followed by ADN Telecom, with a turnover value of Tk15.1 crore, closing at Tk45.1 per share.
The Metro Spinning Ltd was the top gainer, advancing 9.5 percent, closing at Tk6.9 per share, while ACI Ltd was the day's worst loser after shedding 7.6 percent and closing at Tk182.9 per share, said the DSE website.
Out of the 355 issues traded, 109 advanced, 195 declined, and 51 remained unchanged on the DSE.