BBN file photo
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s stocks returned to the red on Monday, after a single-day break, as investors opted for profit-motivated sell-offs.
Brokers said the market faced late hours’ selling pressure as investors opted for profit booking in micro cap and mini cap securities, after recent price surge.
Following the previous day’s sharp gain, the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) opened higher with rising trading activities.
Within first 15 minutes of trading, the key index of the country’s prime bourse advanced more than 12 points while the CSE All Share Price Index (CASPI) of port city’s bourse gained 40 points at 10:45am.
After 30 minutes of trading, the DSEX gained more than 19 points while the CSE All Share Price Index (CASPI) of port city’s bourse rose 42 points at 11:00am.
The market started to decline and after 90 minutes of trading, DSEX saw a fractional loss of 0.46 point while the CSE All Shares Price Index fell 41 points at 12:00 noon.
At the end of the session, DSEX, the prime index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), settled at 5,859, losing 27.97 points or 0.47 percent over the previous day.
The two other indices also finished marginally lower. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, fell 8.19 points to finish at 2,021 and the DSES (Shariah) index lost 3.06 points to settle at 1,315.
Turnover, another important indicator of the market, also fell to BDT 8.85 billion, which was 8.66 percent lower than the previous day’s turnover of BDT 9.69 billion.
A total number of 196,322 trades were executed in the day’s trading session with trading volume of 246.16 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of the DSE stood at BDT 4,152 billion which was BDT 4,162 billion in the previous day.
The losers took a modest lead over the gainers, as out of 347 issues traded, 184 closed lower, 126 higher and 37 remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
United Power topped the day’s turnover chart with shares worth BDT 253 million changing hands, closely followed by Square Pharmaceuticals, Dragon Sweater, Premier Bank and Pharma Aids.
The insurance companies dominated the day’s gainers chart with Agrani Insurance was the day’s best performer, posting a gain of 9.82 percent while Savar Refractories was the day’s worst loser, shedding 9.94 percent.
The port city bourse Chittagong Stock Exchange also backed to the red with the CSE All Share Price Index – CASPI – losing 84 points to settle at 17,981 while the Selective Categories Index – CSCX –shedding 54 points to finish at 10,864.
Here too, the losers beat the gainers as 152 issues ended lower, 106 higher and 20 remained unchanged.
The port city bourse traded 11.48 million shares and mutual fund units worth more than BDT 326 million in turnover.
BBN/SSR/SR