BBN file photo

Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Bangladesh’s stocks returned to the red on Thursday, breaking a three-day winning spell as investors went on late hours profit booking on sector-specific stocks.
Brokers said a section of investors preferred to book quick-gain while some were busy with rebalancing portfolio after announcement of monetary policy statement (MPS) and ongoing earnings declaration session, taking the market to the red territory.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) unveiled the “growth-supportive” MPS for the first half of the current Fiscal Year (FY) 2017-18 on Wednesday, while some listed companies disclosed mixed quarterly earnings.
Following the previous three days’ marginal gain, the market opened higher and the key index of the major bourse gained nearly 33 points within first half an hour of trading, but profit booking sale pressure eroded all the early gains, finally ended 9.35 points lower.
DHAKA STOCK EXCHANGE:
DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,815, shedding 9.35 points or 0.16 percent over the previous session.
The DS30 index, comprising the blue-chips, also fell 2.23 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 2,129.
However, the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) saw a fractional gain of 0.43 point or 0.03 percent to close at 1,318.
Turnover rose to BDT 7.12 billion on the DSE, which was nearly 12 percent higher than the previous day’s turnover of BDT 6.38 billion.
A total number of 0.105 million trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 232.24 million securities.
The total market capitalisation of the DSE also rose to all-time high to BDT 3,931 billion, breaking the previous high of BDT 3,928 billion recorded on Wednesday.
Losers took a modest lead over the gainers as 330 issues traded, 166 closed lower, 113 closed higher and 51 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
Mercantile Bank topped the turnover chart with about 14.13 million shares of BDT 325 million changing hands, closely followed by GrameenPhone, LankaBangla Finance, IDLC Finance and Premier Bank.
Rupali Bank was the day’s highest gainer, posting a 9.79 percent rise, while BD Welding was the worst loser, losing by 4.0 percent.
CHITTAGONG STOCK EXCHANGE:
The port city bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also returned to the red with its Selective Categories Index – CSCX – losing 8.49 points to settle at 10,897 points.
Losers beat gainers as 138 issues closed lower, 98 closed higher and 27 remained unchanged on the CSE.
The port city bourse traded 15.05 million shares and mutual fund units’ worth BDT 518 million in turnover.
BBN/SS/ANS