Stocks ended almost flat on Sunday after choppy trading as investors mostly followed cautious stance amid prevailing volatile market trend.
Market analysts said a section of investors became active in the market for taking fresh position in sector-specific stocks considering favourable price level while some were busy rebalancing portfolio ahead of earnings declarations, taking the market in the flat zone.
The market opened on flying note and the key index rose about 27 points within 10 minutes of trading. But rest of session eroded the initial gains amid selling pressure.
After witnessing volatility throughout the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), saw a fractional gain of 0.68 point to settle the session at 5,134.
Two other indices also edged up. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 3.35 points to finish at 1,839 and the DSES (Shariah) index gained 2.75 points to settle at 1,176.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, stood at Tk 4.06 billion, which was 13 per cent lower than the previous day’s turnover of Tk 4.68 billion.
A total number of 121,344 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 154.68 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE increased slightly to Tk 3,847 billion on Sunday, from Tk 3,844 billion in the previous day.
The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 351 issues traded, 214 closed lower, 111 higher and 26 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
United Power topped the turnover chart with shares worth Tk 214 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were Bangladesh Shipping Corporation, Fortune Shoes, Monno Ceramic and SEML Lecture Equity Management Fund.
BD Autocars was the day’s best performer, posting a gain of 9.98 per cent while Progressive Life Insurance was the day’s worst loser, slumping by 23.66 per cent following its corporate declaration.
The port city bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange, also finished flat with the CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI – advancing 3.02 points to settle at 15,716 while the Selective Categories Index – CSCX –fell 0.32 point to finish at 9,551.
Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 151 issues ended lower, 92 higher and 28 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse traded 7.71 million shares and mutual fund units worth nearly Tk 210 million in turnover.
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