Bangladesh’s stocks fall as banking sector losses

Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Bangladesh’s stocks fell on Sunday following majority banks loss their prices, market operators said.

The prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) tumbled to three months low on Sunday as worried investors continued their selling binge on financial stocks.

DSEX, the prime index of the DSE, went down by 58.07 points or 1.04 per cent to settle at 5,512. It was the lowest level of DSEX since January 02, 2019.

The daily trade turnover on the prime bourse also dipped to three months low to BDT 3.54 billion on Sunday as most of the investors were reluctant to make fresh investment in stocks amid ongoing bearish trend.

Ongoing pessimism coupled with lower-than- expected dividend declaration of two banks eroded investors’ confidence further, they added.

They also said the investors continued their selling spree amid lower than expected dividend of two banks which prompted investors to sell banking shares and cast a negative impact to the overall market.

Brac Bank and Bank Asia – recommended lower than expected dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2018, disclosed on Sunday.

The Brac Bank recommended 15 per cent stock dividend while Bank Asia recommended 5.0 per cent cash and 5.0 per cent stock dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2018.

Accordingly, the banking sector posted the highest loss of 2.44 per cent with prices of 24 banks closed lower, out of 30 listed banks.

Bank Asia was the day’s highest lower, losing 10.52 per cent to close at BDT 17 each. Brac Bank was the third highest loser, shedding 7.22 per cent to close at BDT 75.80 each.

The market opened on downward trend and the downturn continued until end of the session with no sign of reversal.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, plunged 20.73 points to finish at 1972 and the DSES (Shariah) index lost 2.59 points to settle at 1,281.

Turnover came down to BDT 3.54 billion, which was 9.46 per cent lower than the previous session’s turnover of BDT 3.91 billion.

It was the lowest single-day turnover since December 23, 2018 when turnover totalled recorded BDT 3.53 billion.

The financial institutions sector also lost 0.89 per cent, followed by pharmaceuticals with 0.69 per cent, food 0.55 per cent and engineering 0.33 per cent.

Telecommunication and power sector gained 1.0 per cent and 0.10 per cent respectively.

A total number of 100,740 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 71.90 million shares and mutual fund units.

The market-cap of the DSE also declined to BDT 4,127 billion, from BDT 4,149 billion in the previous day.

The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 343 issues traded, 206 closed lower, 94 ended higher and 43 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.

Brac Bank topped the turnover chart with shares worth nearly BDT 219 million changing hands, closely followed by United Power, Butch-Bangla Bank, Gramemenphone and BATBC.

JMI Syringes was the day’s best performer, posting a gain of 8.74 per cent while Bank Asia was the day’s worst loser, losing 10.52 per cent following the news of its corporate declarations.

On the other hand, Chittagong Stock Exchange also ended lower with the CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI – slumping 220 points to settle at 16,888 while the Selective Categories Index – CSCX losing 134 points to finish at 10,235.

Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 150 issues closed lower, 61 ended higher and 35 remained unchanged.

BBN/SSR/AD