Stocks witnessed another flat session on Tuesday, as investors mostly followed cautious stance ahead of June closing.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went up by 1.80 points or 0.03 per cent, finishing the day at 5,380.
Market analysts said despite the market inched up, most of the investors remained cautious as they awaited the government move to review the proposed taxes on listed companies.
Strong criticism from market stakeholders, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) chairman hinted at the possibility of reviewing the proposal of the budget for fiscal year (FY) 2019-20.
The Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal proposed, among other, imposition of 15 per cent additional tax on retained earnings and reserves, if the amount exceeds 50 per cent of the paid-up capital of the company.
The minister also proposed imposing 15 per cent tax on stock dividend to promote cash dividend as part of efforts to increase money flow into the stock market.
Two other indices also closed slightly higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 2.66 points to finish at 1,896 and the DSE Shariah Index gained 0.77 point to close at 1,230.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, rose to Tk 4.53 billion, which was 20 per cent higher than the previous day’s turnover of Tk 3.78 billion.
A total number of 116,655 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 121.64 million securities.
The losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 349 issues traded, 161 declined, 131 advanced and 57 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
JMI Syringes & Medical Devices topped the turnover chart with shares worth Tk 241 million changing hands, closely followed by United Power, Genex Infosys, Global Insurance and Bangladesh Spinning Corporation.
Prime Finance First Mutual Fund was the day’s best performer, posting a gain of 9.56 per cent while AL-Haj Textile was the worst loser, losing 9.90 per cent following the news that it lay off the factory for 30 days with effect from Tuesday.
The port city’s bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also ended marginally higher with its CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI –advancing 6.62 points to settle at 16,477 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX –gaining 3.16 points to finish at 9,985.
Here too, the losers beat gainers, as 113 issues closed lower, 97 ended higher and 52 remained unchanged on the CSE trading floor.
The port city bourse traded 33.41 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 963 million in turnover.
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