Stocks witnessed yet another bearish session Wednesday, extending the losing spell for the third running sessions amid timid trading behavior from the investors.

Turnover, another major indicator of the market also plunged to nearly eight months low to Tk 2.62 billion as market could not offer profitable prices.

“Quite akin to recent sessions, market continued losing momentum as session progressed,” said IDLC Investments, a merchant bank, in its market analysis.

“Coupled with demoralized investors’ sentiment, regulatory bar on providing margin loan in new issue and re-categorized issue for the first 30 trading sessions caused some pessimism in overall market,” said the merchant bank.

In an effort to stabilize the price volatility, the securities regulator on Tuesday imposed restriction on margin loan facilities for first 30 trading days of newly listed companies and changing category.

The merchant bank also noted that depression gradually overcame optimism, forcing most of the major sectors and all cap classes to go red.

The market opened with a downbeat note and the negative vibe sustained till end of the session amid modest volatility. DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 9.96 points or 0.21 per cent to finish at four months low to 4,579.37.

LankaBangla Securities, a stockbroker, said, “The modest weakness was seen as investors cashed in on some of the recent strengths in the market as weak earnings announcement continued to send negative vibe in market”.

However, banking stocks capped the volatile day at the end of the session, said the stockbroker. The heavyweight bank sector gained 0.28 per cent.

Turnover value came down to Tk 2.62 billion, which was 11.61 per cent lower that the previous session’s Tk 2.97 billion. It was also nearly eight months lowest turnover since March 19, when turnover was Tk 1.66 billion.

“Watchfulness lingered amongst the investors amid the bearish market momentum, causing reduced activity in the market,” said International Leasing Securities, a stockbroker. All large-cap sectors closed lower except banks and pharma. The heavyweight banks gained 0.28 per cent and pharma advanced 0.27 per cent.

starf reporter, sharebarta24.com