Dhaka stocks fell for a fourth straight session on Tuesday as broad-based selling outweighed an early advance, with investors remaining cautious amid expectations of weak corporate earnings and domestic economic pressures.
The DSEX, the benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), dropped 20.4 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 5,425 from 5,445 in the previous session.
The market opened higher and climbed to an intraday peak of 5,480 before selling pressure took hold, dragging the index nearly 60 points from its high and pushing most traded stocks into negative territory.
The blue-chip DS30 fell 4.7 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 2,077, while the DSMEX, which tracks the SME market, dropped 18.6 points, or 1.8 per cent, to 990.
Turnover, however, rose 5 per cent to Tk564.20 crore from Tk537.10 crore in the previous session.
Investors executed 172,178 trades, slightly below the previous day’s 172,753, while about 18.10 crore shares changed hands, broadly unchanged from the previous session.
DSE market capitalisation fell to Tk6,76,200 crore from Tk6,77,300 crore a day earlier.
Textiles dominated trading, accounting for 29.8 per cent of equity turnover with Tk148.85 crore.
General insurance followed with 11.5 per cent, or about Tk57.60 crore, while pharmaceuticals and chemicals accounted for 9.9 per cent, with turnover of roughly Tk49.55 crore.
Selling pressure was widespread.
Mutual funds posted the sharpest sectoral decline, falling 3.5 per cent, followed by financial institutions at 2.4 per cent and general insurance at 2.1 per cent.
Services lost 2 per cent and travel and leisure fell 1.9 per cent, while jute, paper and printing, cement, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, and textiles also ended lower.
A few sectors bucked the trend. Life insurance gained 1.7 per cent, while tannery and IT rose 0.4 per cent and 0.3 per cent respectively.
Of the 395 issues traded, 264 declined, 76 advanced and 55 remained unchanged.
Eastern Cables led the gainers with a 10 per cent rise, followed by Information Services Network with 9.90 per cent, Orion Infusion with 8.74 per cent, Sonali Life Insurance with 5.57 per cent, Apex Foods with 5.33 per cent and Lovello Ice-Cream with 4.82 per cent gains.
Among the losers, First Prime Bank Mutual Fund fell 9.80 per cent, Bangladesh Welding Electrodes 9.73 per cent, Prime First ICB Mutual Fund 9.71 per cent and MBL First Mutual Fund 9.52 per cent.
