Stocks ended nearly flat on Thursday, while DSEX, the prime index of the main bourse, drifted lower as cautious investors sold shares.
Market insiders said most of the investors followed cautious stance and observing the country’s political development as the national parliamentary elections nears.
The market opened on positive note and the core index crossed the 5,300-mark in the first hour of trading, gaining more than 13 points. But the late hours selling pressure eroded all the early gains.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,281, losing 5.47 points or 0.10 per cent over the previous day.
However, two other indices also ended slightly higher. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, advanced 0.95 points to finish at 1,861 and the DSE Shariah Index also gained 0.64 point to close at 1,223.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, also rose to Tk 7.35 billion, which was 24 per cent higher than the previous day’s Tk 5.94 billion.
A total number of 154,669 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 179.68 million securities.
The market capitalisation of the DSE came down to at Tk 3,817 billion on the day which was Tk 3,836 billion in the previous day.
Of the 334 issues traded, 182 declined, 111 advanced and 41 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Saiham Textile topped the DSE turnover chart with 7.35 million shares worth Tk 476 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were United Power, Khulna Power, Advent Pharma and Square Pharmaceuticals.
Share price of ML Dyeing is soaring despite having no undisclosed price sensitive information (PSI) and topped the gainers’ chart for the third running session.
The company’s share price rose about 30 per cent within three consecutive sessions to close at Tk 55 each on Thursday. Sonali Aansh was the worst loser, losing 7.06 per cent.
The port city bourse CSE also ended lower with its CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -shedding 14 points to settle at 16,182 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -losing 9.0 point to finish at 9,810.
The losers beat gainers as 116 issues closed lower, 89 ended higher and 28 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 14.82 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than Tk 537 million in turnover.
