Stocks continued to end flat for the last nine consecutive sessions yesterday amid persistent wide fluctuations.
The market opened higher in the morning but suffered choppy trading throughout the entire session, as investors failed to gauge the market pulse due to extreme volatility.
The benchmark index DSEX was up 6 points to close at 4,587.
The Shariah index DSES rose 4 points to 1,125. The blue chip comprising index DS30 gained 7 points to 1,766.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index CSCX ended at 8,609, rising 6 points.
There will be no trade on Sunday, the first day of the next week, as the market will remain closed on the occasion of public holiday due to International Mother Language Day.
Participation in trading still remained poor as the DSE turnover stood at Tk440 crore, down 6% over the previous session.
Engineering sector dominated the trading, accounting for 20% of the day’s total traded value.
Cement sector flexed its muscle on the day, climbing 3.4% as almost all the listed cement companies experienced price appreciation, led by Lafarge Surma Cement that posted 5.6% gain.
The stock also dominated the turnover chart after a long time with shares worth Tk25.8 crore changing hands.
Power and textile edged higher while non-banking financial institutions, life insurance bank, food and allied, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications ended negative.
IDLC Investments said as investors were mostly concentrated to short-term profit booking and rebalancing portfolio, the market hardly got any momentum.
Lanka Bangla Securities said the choppy trading continued amid release of a mixed batch of economic data. “The market also presented with mixed quarterly data in previous week which continued to batter the market sentiment. A group of investors also set for risk off mode reflected by the change to the sector-wise movement.”
Losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 324 issues traded, 102 closed positive, 165 negative and 57 remained unchanged.