Dhaka stocks extended the losing streak to the third day on Wednesday, as most of the investors remained on the sideline amid economic worries in the country and global geopolitical tensions, market operators said.
DSEX, the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, lost 10.80 points, or 0.18 per cent, to close at 5,763.77 points after losing 4.18 points in the previous trading session.
The Dhaka bourse remained closed from April 10 to April 14 on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr, one of the biggest religious festivals of the Muslims, Pahela Baishakh, the first day of Bengali New Year, and weekly holidays.
The market also saw less participation of investors on the day, as the turnover on the DSE decreased to Tk 482.53 crore compared with that of Tk聽540.23 crore in the previous trading session.
Before the week before the closure, the DSE was on a losing streak for seven consecutive weeks with a total decrease of 595.03 points in its key index.
Market operators said that multiple other factors were working behind the bearish trend of stocks, such as lack of investor confidence, liquidity crisis in banks and sudden change of policies.
Of the 395 issues traded on the day, 106 advanced, 222 declined and 67 remained unchanged.
On the sectoral front, pharmaceutical issues exerted the highest turnover, followed by food and textile stocks.
EBL Securities in its daily market commentary said, 鈥楢lthough the indices managed to remain positive until the first hour of the session, sellers regained their dominance since the overall market sentiment has yet to rebound due to a lack of significant catalysts to counter the prevailing pessimism pervading across the trading floor.鈥�
The DSE Shariah index decreased by 1.64 points, or 0.13 per cent, to close at 1,262.41points on Wednesday.
The DS30 index lost 5.36 points, or 0.26 per cent, to finish at 2,007.34 points.
Asiatic Laboratories topped the turnover chart on the day with its shares worth Tk 26.36 crore changing hands.
Taufika Foods and Lovello Ice-cream, Golden Son, Fu Wang Food, Fu-Wang Ceramic Industries, Best Holdings, Alif Industries, City General Insurance Co, Shinepukur Ceramics and Paramount Textile were the other turnover leaders.
