Stocks closed flat yesterday as late selling pressure to book profit cut early gains.
The market started on the positive mood, rising almost 20 points in the morning but the selling pressure mainly on bank, cement and telecommunication pulled the market slightly down.
The benchmark DSEX lost nearly 7 points to end at 4,547, extending its losses for the second consecutive session.
The Shariah index shed 4 points or 0.5% to 1,062. The comprising blue chips DS30 was down over 1 point to 1,726. Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Selective Categories Index, CSCX, rose slightly 6 points to close at 8,559.
Turnover at DSE has remained sluggish and total turnover stood at Tk632 crore, down 1.5% over the previous session.
Bank, cement and telco sectors dragged the market with 0.3%, 0.3% and 1% losses while engineering, non-banking financial institutions and IT sector posted 1.3%, 1.2% and 2.2% gains.
All the other sectors, including pharmaceuticals, power and, food and allied edged down.
Lanka Bangla Securities said market closed red at the last trading day of the week as investors preferred profit booking after gaining sharp in the last two weeks.
IDLC Investments said the side way movement continued for the second day where investors continued to book profit and reallocate their positions.
Zenith Investments said the market once again reduced its pace, closing the week with some profit booking.
The sheer size of the volume proves that traders are only taking a pause following the recent upward move by the market, it said.
It said the indexes became somewhat lackluster in the late afternoon, after sellers took over buyers, offloading their holdings to book some profit.
Fuel and power topped the turnover chart, followed by pharmaceuticals and engineering. These three sectors jointly accounted for more than 41% of the total turnover at the DSE.
Beximco Limited that gained 4.5% was the most traded stock with a net turnover of Tk48.4 crore.