Stocks witnessed yet another bearish session Thursday with sluggish turnover value as investors were mostly cautious ahead of year-closing.
Market insiders said retail investors remained cautious about fresh exposure to the market, while institutional investors adopted ‘go-slow’ strategy as year-closing near.
Following the previous day’s correction, the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) saw negative trend while the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) opened positive trend with low trading activities.
The first half of the session went through a flat movement, but later half of the session fell steadily, finally the key index of the country’s prime bourse fell 13.69 points while the CSE All Shares Price Index (CAPSI) of port city bourse lost 49 points at closing.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), went down by 13.69 points or 0.22 per cent to settle at 6,183.
However, the two other indices managed to close green. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips saw a fractional gain of 0.03 point to close at 2,231.
The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) advanced 1.68 points or 0.12 per cent to finish at 1,366.
Turnover, the crucial indicator of the market, also fell 28 per cent to Tk 3.68 billion, compared to the previous day’s turnover of Tk 5.12 billion.
Losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 335 issues traded, 174 closed lower, 108 closed higher and 53 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
The lone listed telecom company -- Grameenphone topped the day’s turnover chart with shares of Tk 166 million changing hands, closely followed by National Tubes, Brac Bank, Square Pharmaceuticals and City Bank.
Emerald Oil Industries was the day’s best performer, posting a gain of 9.74 per cent while Progressive Life Insurance was the day’s worst loser, shedding 7.41 per cent.
The port city bourse also closed lower with CSE All Shares Price Index (CAPSI) - losing 49 points to finish at 19,127.
The Selective Categories Index of the port city bourse -- CSCX -- also lost 29 points to settle at 11,562 points.
Losers beat gainers as 137 issues closed lower, 72 closed higher and 30 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 7.08 million shares and mutual fund units worth Tk 193 million in turnover.
