Stocks ended almost flat on Wednesday, after a sharp rise in the previous day, as investors adopted 'wait-and-see' strategy.
Following the previous day's strong comeback, the market started higher and the key index soared 60 points within the first hour of trading, but failed to sustain that level amid selling pressure on selective large-cap stocks.
Finally, DSEX, the key index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up 6.10 points or 0.08 per cent to close at 7,011, after recovering more than 120 points in the previous day.
However, the DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell sharply by 17.32 points to finish at 2,644 as its heavyweight British American Tobacco suffered most, contributing about 27 points fall of DSEX.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, stood at Tk 14.97 billion on the prime bourse, which was 8.0 per cent higher than the previous day's tally of Tk 13.86 billion.
Market insiders said the market ended almost flat as the general investors followed 'wait-and-see' strategy due to the absence of any trigger in the market.
The market index saw a volatile movement as profit-taking was still on the menu, said a merchant banker.
"Institutional investors continued to support the market while the general investors are cautiously observing the market movement before making any further investment decisions," he said.
Dividend and quarter-end earnings declarations of a good number of companies' during the trading hours failed to attract investors, said a leading broker.
Although BATBC has posted a 32.56 per cent profit growth in nine months for January-September 2021, and recommended 125 per cent interim cash dividend, its share price plunged by 3.63 per cent.
The tobacco manufacturer's earnings per share (EPS) stood at Tk 21.41 for January-September 2021 as against Tk 16.15 for January-September 2020.
British American Tobacco, Investment Corporation of Bangladesh, Beximco Pharma, Power Grid Company and Beximco saw significant price fall, said the stockbroker.
However, price surge of Grameenphone, Dutch-Bangla Bank, Brac Bank, IFIC Bank and LafargeHolcim offset from a big fall, he added.
According to International Leasing Securities, investors continued their portfolio restructuring to take positions on the stocks based on the recent earnings declarations.
Investors, however, showed buying interest in banking issues as prices of 28 banks closed higher out of 32 listed banks. Two closed in the red and two remained unchanged.
The banking surged by 2.80 per cent as many banks posted highest profit growth in the third quarter for July-September 2021.
The general insurance and telecom sectors also gained 4.0 per cent, and 0.40 per cent respectively.
On the other hand, food, financial institutions, engineering, pharma and power sectors lost 2.80 per cent, 1.20 per cent, 0.90 per cent, 0.70 per cent and 0.60 per cent respectively.
Gainers took a modest lead over the losers as out of 375 issues traded, 180 closed higher, 166 ended lower and 29 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 218,918 trades were executed in the day's trading session with a trading volume of 364.26 million securities.
The market-cap of DSE, however, dropped to Tk 5,633 billion, from Tk 5,639 billion in the previous day.
Beximco was the most-traded stocks with shares worth Tk 1.26 billion changing hands, closely followed by IFIC Bank (1.09 billion), Orion Pharma (Tk 696 million), Delta Life Insurance (Tk 693 million) and BATBC (Tk 673 million).
Olympic Accessories was the day's top gainer, posting a gain of 10 per cent Mir Akther Hossain was the day's worst loser, shedding 9.38 per cent.
The port city bourse CSE also edged slightly higher with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - gaining 9.01 points to settle at 20,453 and Selective Categories Index - CSCX - advancing 2.0 points to finish at 12,285.
Here too, the gainers beat the losers as 162 issues closed higher, 112 lower and 23 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse traded 15.64 million shares and mutual fund units worth nearly Tk 429 million in turnover.
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