Dhaka stocks witnessed its key index fall for the second consecutive session on Wednesday to hit a fresh three-year low, as a section of investors went back into the selling mood to protect their funds amid a prolonged bearish vibe of the market, market operators said.
DSEX, the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, decreased by 54.63 points, or 0.96 per cent, to close at 5,578.97 points on the day after losing 41.25 points in the previous trading session.
The key index on Wednesday posted its lowest after May 4, 2021, when it was at 5,535.48 points.
On Monday, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission held a meeting with stakeholders to discuss the market situation. The market gained on Monday.
Before Monday, the DSEX lost a total of 210.37 points in five trading sessions.
A group of individual investors on Tuesday staged protests in front of the old DSE building against the continued fall in share prices.
In the past nine weeks, the Dhaka bourse witnessed decrease in the indices in a total of eight weeks, while gaining only in the one week before Eid-ul-Fitr, one of the biggest religious festivals of the Muslims, which was celebrated in the country on April 11.
Market operators said that rising interest rates in banks might have prompted investors to shift their funds to the sector.
They also said that multiple other factors were working behind the bearish trend of stocks, such as lack of investor confidence, forced selling pressures at the brokerage houses, economic woes in the country and global tensions in the upscale, liquidity crisis in banks and sudden change of policies.
The turnover on the DSE saw an increase to Tk聽602.74聽crore on Wednesday compared with that of Tk聽597.56 crore in the previous trading session.
Of the 394 issues traded on the day, 79 advanced, 274 declined and 41 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, 鈥楾he market observed a continued tussle between buyers and sellers till mid-session; however, bears subsequently regained their dominance and led the market to prolong its downward trend with no major catalyst for a strong turnaround.鈥�
The DSE Shariah index decreased by 6.16 points, or 0.49 per cent, to close at 1,229.56 points on Wednesday.
The DS30 index gained 4.24 points, or 0.21 per cent, to finish at 1,984.67 points.
Asiatic Laboratories topped the turnover chart on the day with its shares worth Tk聽35.42 crore changing hands.
Orion Infusion, Taufika Foods and Lovello Ice-cream, Malek Spinning Mills, Golden Son, Alif Industries, Kohinoor Chemicals Company (Bangladesh), Aftab Automobiles, Best Holdings and IT Consultants were the other turnover leaders.