Downtrend brings protestors back

Small investors under the banner of Stock Market Investors' Association staged demonstrations in front of Dhaka Stock Exchange yesterday to protest a relentless fall in shares prices in the last seven days.
At the end of the trading session, aggrieved investors chanted slogans against the market regulator and bourses. They also blamed the downtrend on the inactiveness of institutional investors.
Stocks ended flat yesterday, as institutional investors adopted a wait-and-see policy anticipating a long-term bearish trend.
DGEN, the benchmark general index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, finished the day at 4,347.63 points, after gaining 3.02 points or 0.06 percent.
“Week ended over sluggish session on the bourse. As the market was sliding continuously, market participants avoided taking a fresh position,” said IDLC Investments in its regular market research.
Rather, as the 'fear' started to dominate, investors preferred to liquidate their earlier position at break-even or with marginal loss, the stockbroker said.
Recent poor quarterly earnings, forthcoming initial public offerings and year-end anomaly are acting as a catalyst for the bourse to enter into a 'downtrend' regime, IDLC said.
“Although key economic indicators are positive, a lack of investors' participation and scarcity of earnings growth are pulling the market down,” said LankaBangla Securities in its daily market commentary.
Turnover rose 3.1 percent to Tk 276 crore from the previous day. A total of 0.78 lakh trades were executed while 6.91 crore shares and mutual fund units changed hands on the Dhaka bourse.
Of the 268 issues traded on the DSE, 74 advanced, 177 declined and 17 remained unchanged.
Among the major sectors, telecom rose 1.16 percent, the most gaining sector, non-bank financial institutions 0.17 percent. Pharmaceuticals lost 0.01 percent, power 0.65 percent and banks 0.19 percent.
United Airways continued to feature in the most traded stocks' chart of the day with 1.04 crore shares worth Tk 28.37 crore changing hands.
National Polymar was the biggest gainer of the day, as it registered a rise of 9.38 percent, while Desco was the worst loser, plunging by 14.21 percent.