Stocks slipped into the red on Wednesday, snapping a four-day gaining streak, as investors booked some profits on sector-wise shares.
Market analysts said some investors preferred booking profit on stocks that saw substantial gain in the recent upsurge, taking the market in the flat zone.
The market opened on upward trend and the key index of the major bourse rose about 17 points within first 15 minutes of trading. But profit booking sale pressure in the later part of the session led the prime index to close in the red.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,223, shedding 4.08 points over the previous day.
Two other indices also finished slightly lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, shed 3.87 points to close at 1,841 and the DSES (Shariah) index saw a fractional loss of 0.25 point to settle at 1,204.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, however, rose to Tk 5.42 billion, which was nearly 15 per cent higher than the previous day’s turnover of Tk 4.73 billion.
A total number of 135,661 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 156.78 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE also fell to Tk 3,880 billion on Wednesday, from Tk 3,887 billion in the previous session.
Losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 354 issues traded, 194 closed lower, 123 ended higher and 37 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
United Power topped the turnover chart with 1.70 million shares worth more than Tk 678 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were Orion Infusions, Fortune Shoes, JMI Syringes and Bangladesh Shipping Corporation.
RAK Ceramic was the day’s best performer, posting a gain of 10 per cent while SEML FBSL Growth Fund was the day’s worst loser, slumping by 8.33 per cent.
The port city bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange, closed mixed with the CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI – gaining 1.30 points to settle at 15,977 while the Selective Categories Index – CSCX –shedding 3.40 points to finish at 9,699.
Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 121 issues ended lower, 107 closed higher and 31 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse traded 9.37 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than 212 million in turnover.