Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) –  Dhaka stocks edged lower 0n Sunday, the opening day of the week, with turnover value declining as sell pressure pull the stocks down.

The market witnessed some optimism during the first hour of trading and the index gained 30 points. After that the index started to drop steadily and the index ended in the negative at the end of the session.

The benchmark general index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, generally known as DGEN, the key index of the market, slipped 49.45 points or 0.90 per cent to close at 5,417.54.

The broader DSE All Shares Price Index (DSI) went down by 40.86 points or 0.89 per cent to close at 4,520.46. The DSE-20 blue-chip index dropped 38.83 points or 0.96 per cent to close at 3,979.98.

“The market opened with optimism, some large cap and small cap stocks started to rally. But market tracking index DGEN started to pull back as the cautious buyers started to restrain their buying as they were more concerned with the new monetary policy stance by the central bank and ongoing volatility in the forex market, Commented LankaBangla Securities.

The central bank is expected to declare the half yearly monetary policy in the third week of this month, it mentioned.

Turnover value declined to BDT 6.15 billon in value terms against BDT 6.78 billion in the previous session.

Out of 263 issues traded, 97 advanced, 154 declined and 12 remained unchanged.

National Bank was the top turnover chart with shares worth BDT 297.56 million changing hands.

Becon Pharma was the top gainer posting a rise of 9.56 percent following its up gradation of B category from Z category with effective from Sunday.

The Company reported disbursement of stock dividend at 5 percent for the year ended on June 30, 2011.

Meghna Petroleum was the day’s worst loser and lost 25.29 percent following its price adjustment after record date.

BBN/SSR/AD-09Dec12-12:56 am (BST)