DSE turnover drops 26%, indices stay afloat
The recent hike in fuel and energy prices induced cautious investors to offload their holdings, causing the majority of scrips to extend their correction mode
With the cautious investors' profit-booking moves, Dhaka stocks had their fourth consecutive session of volatility on Monday.
As the majority of scrips faced selling pressure, turnover in the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) declined by 26% to Tk510 crore while buying enthusiasm in a few scrips helped the indices inch up at the end of the session.
"The equity indices of the Dhaka bourse managed to stay afloat owing to investors' buying interest in selective scrips in an attempt to rebalance their portfolios to keep up with the market momentum," said EBL Securities in its daily market commentary.
The recent hike in fuel and energy prices induced cautious investors to offload their holdings, causing the majority of scrips to extend their correction mode.
Opportunist investors chose to book profits in sector-specific issues considering the ongoing pessimism in the market owing to dismal performance forecasts of the listed companies.
Meanwhile, the market momentum has shifted to particular sectors that investors perceive as an opportunity to harness quick gains, observed EBL Securities analysts.
DSEX, the broad-based index of the premier bourse, closed 0.12% higher at 6,263, while the blue-chip index DS30 closed 0.33% higher at 2,211.
A total of 34 scrips advanced while 140 declined during the closing session.
Due to the selling pressure, the number of DSE scrips having active bidders dropped to 100 from 123 in the previous session and 167 on 17 January while the bourse has 400 equity, mutual fund and corporate bonds to be traded.
Amid the building up of upward pressure on interest rates, the insurance sector which is considered to be the net lender to the financial markets continued its bull run that started a week ago following a yearlong correction.
IT, general insurance and life insurance contributed the highest 19%, 13.7% and 11.5% of the DSE turnover respectively.
Most of the sectors displayed mixed returns, out of which market capitalisation of travel and leisure, pharmaceuticals and life insurance increased by 2.1%, 0.6% and 0.5% respectively.
On the other hand, the IT, general insurance and jute sectors' market capitalisation decreased by 3.1%, 1.1% and 0.8% respectively.
Bangladesh Monospool, Orion Infusion, Gemini Seafood, Monno Agro, BD Welding Electrodes, Meghna Life, Kohinoor, Beacon Pharma, National Housing Finance, Takaful Insurance, Pragati Life, Paper Processing, Monno Ceramic, Sea Pearl Beach Resort, Eastern Cable, Rupali Life, Malek Spinning, Apex Foods and Prime Bank led the day's gainers respectively.
Metro Spinning, Genex Infosys, ADN Telecom, Lub-rref Bangladesh, Reliance Insurance, Information Technology Consultants, Bangladesh National Insurance, Pioneer Insurance, Asia Insurance, and Bangladesh Shipping Corporation led the correction table.
Indices of the Chittagong Stock Exchange merely managed to stay afloat, while turnover in the port-city bourse increased by 6.8% to Tk8.6 crore.