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Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Bangladesh’s stocks closed slightly lower on Wednesday, extending the losing spell for the third day in a row as investors remained mostly inactive to the market.

Following the previous two sessions’ sharp decline, the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) opened with optimistic note.

Within first 15 minutes of trading, the key index of the country’s prime bourse advanced more than 13 points while the CSE All Share Price Index (CASPI) of port city’s bourse gained 1.64 points at 10:45am.

After 30 minutes of trading, the DSEX rose more than 40 points while the CSE All Share Price Index (CASPI) of port city’s bourse advanced 39 points at 11:00am.

After 90 minutes of trading, DSEX advanced 12 points while the CSE All Shares Price Index gained 39 points at 12noon when the report was filed.

After the noon, the market witnessed volatility almost throughout the session and DSE’s key index fell 2.92 points while CSE’s All Share Price Index lost 4.88 points at closing.

DHAKA STOCK EXCHANGE:

DSEX, the benchmark index of the DSE, went down by 2.92 points or 0.05 percent to settle at more than nine months low at 5,489.

The two other indices of the premier bourse also ended in the red. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 1.40 points to finish at 2,055 and DSES (Shariah) index lost 6.0 points to settle at 1,297.

Bearish sentiment also reflected on the trading activities as the total turnover on the major bourse amounting to BDT 2.77 billion, which was 11 percent lower than the previous day’s turnover of BDT 3.11 billion.

The losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 337 issues traded, 160 closed lower, 117 ended higher and 60 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.

Renata, Pharmaceuticals Company, topped the day’s turnover chart with shares worth nearly BDT 172 changing hands, closely followed by Square Pharmaceuticals, BRAC Bank, Grameenphone and Salvo Chemical Industries.

FAS Finance & Investment was also the day’s highest gainer, posting a gain of 9.48 percent following its 10 percent stock dividend declaration news while BD Finance was the day’s worst loser, losing 7.42 percent.

CHITTAGONG STOCK EXCHANGE:

Port city bourse CSE also ended slightly lower with the CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI – shedding 4.88 points to settle at 16,941 points and Selective Categories Index – CSCX – losing 2.06 points to finish at 10,236 points.

Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 104 issues closed lower, 82 ended higher and 34 remained unchanged on the CSE.

The port city bourse traded 4.69 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than BDT 104 million in turnover.

BBN/SS/ANS