Stocks inched down in volatile trade yesterday with continued thin trading.
The benchmark DSEX was marginally down 6 points or 0.2% to close at 4,697, after a marginal rise in the previous session.
Shariah DSES rose just over 1 point or 0.2% to 1,007. The blue-chip comprising DS30 ended at 1,693 with a loss of only 1 point.
Similarly, Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index, CSCX, saw fractional rise of 0.2 points to close at 9,221.
Mostly financial institutions, power and insurance sectors saw selling pressure while modest buying was seen in banks, textile and power stocks.
Turnover at DSE continued to deteriorate with falling more than 23% to Tk446 crore.
Lanka Bangla Securities in its daily market analysis said market inched lower over the selling pressure on large and mid-cap stocks which might have come from the institutional holdings as the central bank asked to limit banks capital market exposure.
“It is now time to watch how investors react to the annual corporate declaration of stocks under high liquidity in money market and low interest rate environment.”
Liquidity in banking system has pulled down interbank repo rate from 6.85% as of January 2014 to 6.36% on March 4, 2014.
Though, the winning streaks of United Commercial Bank, Mercantile Bank and Southeast Bank built on the previous week’s gain, heavyweight banking sector closed in red. IDLC Investment said after taking a break, market backtracked once again amid waning participation.
“With a number of companies awaiting earning declarations, stock specific vibration continued in the market,” it said adding that consequently, volatility continued to echo throughout the market, particularly in mini cap companies.
Among the major sectors, food and allied gained the most, followed by pharmaceuticals. All the other major sectors closed in red with telecommunications and power going down by 0.21% and 0.28% respectively.
Non-banking financial institution was the biggest loser, making banks to stand in second with 0.37%.
Lafarge Surma Cement was the most traded stock with a turnover of Tk22 crore.
It was followed by Square Pharmaceuticals, Olympic Industries, Bangladesh Submarine Cable, Meghna Petroleum, Grameenphone, United Commercial Bank and Heidelberg Cement.