Stocks keep bleeding for three days

Business Report :
Stocks extended their losing streak for the third straight session on Monday as cautious investors continued to sell-off shares to avoid further erosion of their investment.

The market was bearish for more than a year while the recent tightening of monetary space by the central bank added to the investors’ misery amid the prevailing economic and political concerns.

The central bank has already raised the lending rate for banks to 10.7 per cent as the lending-rate hike by 50 basis points as part of a belt-tightening measure for reining the runaway inflation.

Market operators said the central bank’s latest steps make funds costlier, which would lead to a shift in money flow from the stock market to banks as many investors are likely to invest in fixed-income deposits rather than in the stock market.

The market was positive in the first half of the session while the later half went down gradually; eventually the key index shed more than 7 points down.

The DSEX, the benchmark index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), finally went down by 7.62 points to settle at 6,229, lowest in two months.

The DSES index, which represents Shariah-based companies, also dropped 1.16 points to 1,350.

However, the DS30 Index, which consists of blue-chip companies, saw a fractional gain of 0.38 point to 2,131.

Majority of the traded issues saw price fall as out of 283 issues traded, 107 declined, 29 advanced and 147 remained unchanged.

Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, stood at Tk 4.26 billion, which was 16 per cent higher than the previous day’s turnover of Tk 3.68 billion.

Sea Pearl Beach Resorts was the most-traded stock with shares worth Tk 302 million changing hands, closely followed by LafargeHolcim, Square Pharma, Deshbandhu Polymer and Fu-Wang Food.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also extended losses with the CSE All Share Price Index (CASPI) shedding 14 points to settle at 18,463 and its Selective Categories Index (CSCX) losing 8 to 11,038.