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The daily turnover on the Dhaka Stock Exchange tumbled to four-month low on Sunday as investors were reluctant to put fresh bets on stocks amid growing political tensions.
Turnover, a crucial indicator of the market, was 4.17 billion on the country's premier bourse, slumping further by 14 per cent from the previous day.
It was the lowest single-day transaction volume since April 13 this year, when the turnover was recorded at Tk 4.14 billion.
Analysts said the market remained under sale pressure as investors continued to encash holdings while institutional investors remained on the sidelines amid growing political tensions.
A lack of institutional buyers coupled with the price restriction is preventing buy-sell of shares, which is a major reason for low turnover, said Prof Dr Abu Ahmed, former chairman of the economics department at the University of Dhaka.
The floor price has had a negative impact as investors cannot sell shares at a lower price when most stocks do not have buyers.
The rising interest rates and corporate earnings for the latest quarter ended in June might also have made a section of investors cautious, Prof Ahmed added.
Along with low turnover, DSEX, the benchmark index of the prime bourse, went down 14.05 points to 6,316, the lowest in seven weeks.
Investors were reluctant to take fresh positions in equities owing to the rising political tensions in the country, said EBL Securities in its regular market analysis.
Top negative index contributors were LafargeHolcim, Olympic Industries, JMI Hospital Requisite, Heidelberg Cement and Bangladesh Shipping Corporation as they jointly accounted for over 6 points fall of DSEX, according to amarstock.com, a market data analyst.
A majority of the traded stocks remained unchanged as out of the issues traded, 160 remained unchanged while 39 issues advanced and 134 saw price erosions on the DSE trading floor.
Investors were mostly active in the food sector, capturing 17 per cent of the turnover, followed by general insurance 16.6 per cent and textile 11 per cent.
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