Stocks slip on selling pressure

Despite a stellar start, DSEX lost 61 points on Sunday as investors offloaded shares to rebalance their portfolio.

The benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange declined 0.87% to close at 7,001, and the blue-chip index DS30 fell 18 points to 2,620 on the day.

Meanwhile, the port city bourse Chittagong Stock exchange's All Share Price Index (CASPI) dropped 148 points to close at 20,480.

As sale pressure intensified, share prices of 226 companies declined on the day, while shares of 122 companies advanced and 27 companies' remained unchanged.

"Sell-off was witnessed across sectorial issues as investors offloaded shares to rebalance their portfolio amidst the market downturn. Many investors rushed to participate in the hyped-up textile stocks as the sectors exerted substantial gain amidst the price correction in the market," EBL Securities said in its daily market review.

The total turnover of the DSE declined over 5% to Tk1,637 crore compared to the previous trading day.

Its indexes were dragged down by the fall of heavyweight stocks, including British American Tobacco, Eastern Bank, LafargeHolcim, BSRM and Beximco Limited.

On the sectoral front, textile stocks were the most traded and they contributed 19.34% to the day's total turnover, followed by banks (15.13%) stocks and pharmaceuticals (9.19%).

Most of the sectors observed declining performance, out of which, services (1.1%), telecom (1.1%), and travel (0.7%) have exerted the most positive returns.

Meanwhile, tannery (-4.2%), IT (-4.2%), and paper (-3.6%) witnessed the most corrections on Sunday.

Safko Spinning topped the gainer list advancing 20.8% despite a recent declaration of only 5% cash dividend to its shareholders.

On the other hand, Aramit Cement performed the worst with a 23% decline. It was followed by National Feed Mill (-15.8%) and Pacific Denim (-12.5%).