BBN file photo
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s stocks ended almost flat on Tuesday after choppy trading as investors booked some profits with cautious positioning.
Some investors preferred booking profit on stocks that saw significant gain in the recent upsurge, while some took position on sector specific shares, taking the market in the flat zone, according to market operators.
The market stayed in the positive trend mainly driven by positive movement in the telecommunication, power and engineering sectors, said a leading broker.
The telecom sector posted the highest gain of 0.65 per cent, followed by power with 0.46 per cent and engineering 0.25 per cent.
The market opened on upward note and the key index of the major bourse gained 31 points within first 30 minutes of trading. But profit booking sale pressure in the later part of the session led the prime index to close almost flat.
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), saw a fractional gain of 0.23 point to finish the day at 5,227.
The DSE Shariah Index also gained 2.23 points to close at 1,204. However, the DS30 index, comprising blue chips, shed 1.71 points to finish at 1,845.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, stood at BDT 4.73 billion, which was 2.47 per cent lower than the previous day's turnover of BDT 4.85 billion.
The banking sector witnessed the highest loss of 0.46 per cent, followed by non-bank financial institutions 0.45 per cent, food 0.27 per cent and pharmaceuticals 0.07 per cent.
A total number of 132,175 trades were executed in the day's trading session with trading volume of 128.54 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE also rose slightly to BDT 3,887 billion on Tuesday, from BDT 3,885 billion in the previous session.
Gainers took a modest lead over the losers as out of 353 issues traded, 152 closed higher, 143 ended lower and 58 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
United Power topped the turnover chart with shares worth nearly BDT 301 million changing hands.
The other turnover leaders were Monno Ceramic, Khulna Power, Monno Stafflers and JMI Syringes.
Familytex BD was the day's best performer, posting a gain of 10 per cent while Jute Spinners was the day's worst loser, slumping by 7.41 per cent.
On the other hand, the Chittagong Stock Exchange saw marginal fall with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI - losing 22 points to settle at 15,976 while the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -shedding 16 points to finish at 9,702.
The gainers beat the losers as 122 issues ended higher, 110 closed lower and 27 remained unchanged at the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 8.77 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than 442 million in turnover.
BBN/SSR/AD