Dhaka stocks ended almost flat on Wednesday after volatile trading as investors were active both sides of trading fence, while the Chittagong stock returned to the red.
Market operators said the investors followed cautious stance amid ongoing dividend decoration session while fear of political unrest ahead of the upcoming national election kept the investors mostly inactive.
The market opened on positive note and the key index of the major bourse rose about 29 points within first 30 minutes of trading. But rest of the session eroded almost all the early gains.
Finally, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 3.96 points or 0.07 per cent to close at 5,390 over the previous day.
The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, also advanced 6.20 points to end at 1,897 points.
However, the DSE Shariah Index saw a fractional loss of 0.83 point close at 1,240 points.
The daily turnover on DSE stood at Tk 5.14 billion, which was 5.54 per cent higher than the previous day’s one month lowest turnover of Tk 4.87 billion.
Of the 336 issues traded, 171 closed higher, 131 closed lower and 34 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 110,081 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 127.64 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE rose to Tk 3,880 billion on the day which was Tk 3,866 billion in the previous session.
Khulna Power Company dominated the turnover chart for the eight straight sessions with 2.58 million shares worth Tk 307 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were IFAD Autos, Shasha Denims, Republic Insurance Company and Active Fine Chemicals.
KDS Accessories was the best performer, posting a gain of 10 per cent while Central Pharmaceuticals was the worst loser, losing 7.93 per cent.
However, the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) retreated with its CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI – losing 23 points to settle at 16,557 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX –shedding 16 points to finish at 10,029.
The losers took a modest lead over the gainers as 106 issues closed lower, 105 ended higher and 24 issues remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city’s bourse traded 11.05 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 911 million in turnover.
