Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Stocks edged marginally lower on Wednesday, with turnover dipped below BDT 4.0 billion-mark as investors remained reluctant to make fresh investments.

The market opened with a mixed trend in the morning session amid see-saw. At the end of the session, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) — DSEX — ended at 4,697.54 points, shedding 6.33 points or 0.13 per cent from previous session.

The DS30, comprising blue chips lost 1.36 points or 0.08 per cent to close at 1,693.45 points. However, the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) closed positive with gaining 1.43 points or 0.14 per cent to close at 1,007.45 points.

The total turnover on DSE came down to BDT 3.54 billion, registering 23.37 per cent decline over the previous session’s value of BDT 4.62 billion.

The losers took a modest lead over the gainers as out of 290 issues traded, 144 advanced, 106 declined and 40 issues closed unchanged on the DSE floor.
The market capitalization of the DSE stood at BDT 2,900.18 billion against BDT 2,902.86 billion in the previous session.

Lafarge Surma Cement dominated the top turnover chart with shares worth BDT 223.74 million changing hands followed by Square Pharma, Olympic, BSCCL and Meghna Petroleum.

Desh Garment was also the day’s highest gainer; posting a rise of 9.68 per cent while Prime Bank was the day’s worst losers, slumping by 4.41 per cent.
The port city bourse — the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), however, closed flat in positive with its Selective Categories Index – CSCX gained 0.12 points to close at 9,221.36 points.

Losers beat gainers 110 to 78, with 26 issues remaining unchanged at the port city bourse that traded 7.77 million shares and mutual fund units, turnover value of BDT 333.58 million.

BBN/SSR/AD-05Mar14-9:51 pm (BST)