Stocks ended flat in the red on Wednesday after volatile trading as investors mostly followed the ‘wait-and-see’ approach amid rising virus cases in the country.
Meanwhile, Union Bank’s shares halted at 10 per cent upper limit circuit breaker after a few minutes of debut trading on Wednesday.
The fourth-generation private commercial bank’s share closed at Tk 11 each on the DSE, soaring 10 per cent -- the highest allowable limit on its issue price of Tk 10 each.
Some 58 trades were executed at the DSE with a total of 40,265 shares changing hands at the halted price as most of the IPO shareholders were unwilling to sell their stakes hoping for higher profit in future.
After witnessing high volatility, DSEX, the prime index of the DSE, saw a fraction loss of 0.13 points to settle at 7,032, after gaining over 13 points in the previous day.
Two other indices also edged lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, shed 1.17 points to finish at 2612 and the DSE Shariah Index saw a fractional loss of 0.56 points to close at 1,504.
Turnover, the most important indicator of the market, remained almost the same and amounted to Tk 11.15 billion, which was Tk 11.17 billion in the previous day.
Market analysts said the rising virus cases prompted many investors to sell-offs to realise capital gain while few sector-specific issues seemed to gain investors’ attention ahead of the forthcoming earning declarations.
Of the 381 issues traded, 158 advanced, 157 declined and 66 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading board.
A total number of 197,210 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with a trading volume of 225.24 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE rose to Tk 5,632 billion on the day which was Tk 5,621 billion in the previous session.
Beximco, which lost 0.13 per cent, was the most traded stock with shares worth Tk 831 million changing hands, followed by Bangladesh Shipping Corporation, Matin Spinning Mills, RAK Ceramic and Orion Pharma.
Union Bank, which made its debut today, was the day’s top gainer, posting a 10 per cent while Apex Footwear Ltd was the worst loser, losing 8.69 per cent.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also edged lower with the CSE All-Share Price Index – CASPI –losing 38 points to settle at 20,597 and the Selective Categories Index – CSCX—shedding 25 points to close at 12,371.
Of the issues traded, 140 advanced, 133 declined and 36 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 8.11 million shares and mutual fund units with a turnover value of Tk 268 million.
